As mentioned in our previous post, The Blood Anniversary follow-up patch is now ready. Thank you to everyone who left feedback on our forums and our Discord. Before we get to what's new, we know a lot of you have also been asking for wallpapers of the new splash screens. Here are wallpapers in 2560x1440 for the Mongoose vs Zed Prime and Mother's Love.


An all-new vehicle is available for purchase in ACQUISITIONS for use in Freelance operations. The SNC Informatics Division and its consultants are uncertain as to its origins, but underlined several times that it has multiple autofiring turrets.

Several more vehicles have been balanced for play in Freelance operations, such as Loyalist Agravs the Rook and the Schultz, and the Spacer Cataphract.

The new powersuit-focused maps added in the previous patch to Campaign mode are now available for use in Freelance, while the level layout on SCANDAL NIGHT has been revised. Wildcard spawnlists will be adjusted soon in an upcoming hotfix - apparently some of you weren't thrilled with fighting dozens of Buckmasters all armed with railguns, especially as the Auditor (who's only ever meant to encounter civilians).

Scroll down to see the full list of bugs in the changelog, but the major ones in brief:

• Level loading times should be much faster if you have VSYNC enabled
  
• Your profile.json that tracks your progress now backs up to a special folder (apologies again to the various users that lost progress with the last update)
  
• Scaling issue on Macs with Retina displays has been addressed
  
• Easter Egg meat guns now shoot meat as originally intended

The detonation ranges on Corvid and Spacer Kamikaze units has been slightly increased. Check this thread to see all the numbers that have been tweaked in this update.

The visuals of several lighting presets has been adjusted to be more legible.

Everyone who wanted to double click things in the Freelance menu to buy them can now do so, while vehicles with auto-firing guns now show up in the loadout preview.

An updated version of the Modkit & Map Editor DLC is almost ready. If you already attempted to use the old version of the modkit, you'll have noticed several missing assets. The new modkit will contain the assets compatible with this version of the game, and with an updated comunity compilation, featuring new modded vehicles. Don't forget that there is a guide available on how to get set up with the modkit here.

[expand type=details]

• Updated to version 1.62 The Blood Anniversary
  
• The powersuit-focused Campaign missions WE USED TO WAIT, IRIAN JAYA, SCANDAL NIGHT and SURF SOLAR have been added to Freelance mode.
  
• Eleven vehicles are now available for purchase to play in Freelance mode: Schultz and Rook (Loyalist); St. Benjamin, Boris and Stepper (Corvid); Hatun, Visch, Balder, Cataphract and Lexov (Spacer), and Mother's Love (Unknown)
  
• Two vehicles now have auto-firing turrets installed: Mother's Love and Cataphract.
  
• Casings now spawn from a weapon's ejector mount
  
• Playing as the Auditor pilot no longer spawns hostile units
  
• (Coming in hotfix) Added more variations to wildcard spawns at max difficulty
  
• Detonation ranges on Seeker, Grigori, Civilian & Roadie kamikaze units increased from 2.0 to 2.6
  
• Several balance changes (please refer to change log thread for full list)

• Improved level loading speeds while VSYNC is enabled
  
• Added refresh rate detection for improved loading speeds on high-refresh monitors
  
• Profile.json now backs up to the bckup/ folder
  
• FPS limit can be set at launch with '--maxframerate #' as a launch option (where # is a number)
  
• High-firing arc weapons should no longer "snap back" at a certain range and explode at the player's feet

• Auto-firing guns now show up in the loadout preview

• Lighting revised to be more legible on: lighting_dark_special_01, lighting_day_special_02, lighting_sunsetrise_fog_02, lighting_sunsetrise_special_02, lighting_twilight_fog_02 and lighting_seg_scandalnight

• Double clicking now purchases items in Freelance mode

• Audio levels of the horns for the Canary, Zed Prime & Leviathan have been increased

• (Coming soon) Modkit & Map Editor DLC updated
  
• Dumping packfile and regenerating no longer causes crashes
  
• Increased number of guns mechs can have from 8 to 9
  
• Increased number of lights mechs can have from 16 to 32
  
• Guns are now assigned to a mech via a selector menu, rather than a raw text input, in the F1 debug panel

For a detailed history of all change logs to the game, please refer to this thread on our discussion forums.
[/expand]
We hope you enjoy the update and thank you for reading! If you experience technical difficulties, please:

• Start a thread on our Technical Issues subforum (please read this pinned thread for the specific details to include in your message)
  
• Check out our #bug-reports channel on our Discord server.

- Stellar Jockeys

Welcome to The Blood Anniversary update for Brigador: Up-Armored Edition! Today we celebrate our fifth anniversary since our 1.0 launch with new visual effects, new content and a very special week-long sale of 66% off everything that ends June 14th 10:00 Pacific Time. Whether you only just discovered us in the past year, or have been following the game all the way since its closed alpha in 2014 - thank you.

Non-mechanical NPCs now meet a more obviously gruesome end



You may find that the first campaign level Awake On Foreign Shores will now feel a little different to play (this feature can be toggled on/off in SETTINGS).

Several weapons will now leave impact craters on the ground tiles in levels (this feature can be toggled on/off in SETTINGS).



But wait there's more

We spoke to our friends at Fractal Softworks and Consumer Softproducts, who have informed us that three new Brigadors are available for Freelance operations. Spoilers ahead, only click if you want to know before booting up.

[expand type=spoiler]
🦅ATTENTION CITIZENS🦅
Word of the Brigador contract has reached the Persean Sector. While their gates might not currently be functioning, the SNC has arranged... other means of transport for two pilots of note to fulfill their contractual duties.


The first is former logistics officer-turned-head of a powerful pirate dynasty, Warlord Kanta, while the second hails from the barren-bombarded world of Epiphany, Brother Livewell Cotton.

Also joining the Freelance roster...



MT Foxtrot has been given some downtime off-world by his handler in Cruelty Squad, but it seems this guy just doesn't want to take a break.

Each pilot exclusively encounters what we call "wildcard" spawns. Runs with these pilots are aimed at those looking for... variety.

Many thanks to the teams at Fractal Softworks & Consumer Softproducts for the cameos! Starsector is still in development and not on Steam, but can be bought at a discount from its own site.



Meanwhile Cruelty Squad has its own store page, is also running a discount, and will be turning 1.0 very soon.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1388770/Cruelty_Squad/

We see a lot of overlap in our respective fan bases, so if you've never heard of Starsector or Cruelty Squad - check them out!

[/expand]
These guest cameo pilots will all exclusively fight wildcard spawnlists if you choose them as your pilot in Freelance mode.

Four optional missions have been added to Campaign mode that are powersuit-focused (completion of these missions is not required to progress the campaign).



All runs in Freelance now have a chance to spawn a "wildcard" list of enemies during play. Previously, the game would pick a faction to spawn and choose a palette of enemy vehicles for that faction, while the difficulty of that palette would be according to both your run progress and pilot choice.

Wildcard spawnlists still pick a faction, but on a particular theme. For example, a Spacer wildcard spawnlist might be a couple of boss vehicles, with a swarm of kamikaze agravs in tow, while a Corvid wildcard spawnlist would be almost all fast vehicles like tread bikes and grav bikes.

With this change we hope to introduce more variety to Freelance runs and keep players on their toes.

The Zed Prime is now available for use in Freelance mode. It is an Ultra-class agrav with twin heavy hardpoints. Please be sure to keep an eye on your ammo count when using double Otomos.



Currently, eleven more vehicles are now available for play (we will be adding more playable vehicles to the roster in a follow-up patch later this month). Meanwhile, several vehicles - like the Corvid Rat King, the Loyalist Monarch and the Spacer Usul - now have additional auto-firing turrets.



Auto-firing weapons have a separate ammo count in green and do not affect your primary and secondary weapon choices. You can toggle the auto fire function on and off by pressing V on your keyboard, which can be rebound in SETTINGS.

The SNC Informatics Division notes the addition of new material, available for perusal in the INTEL section of ACQUISITIONS, pending the transfer of necessary funds.



Prior to 2017's Up-Armored Edition, the game had different lighting for Freelance levels. We have included the old lighting data for these levels which you can toggle to via the new USE OLD LIGHTING option in SETTINGS.



In order to apply old lighting, you will need to restart a level via the pause menu.

You can now activate various cheats via the SETTINGS menu. Please note that using these toggles will disable achievements. The Easter Eggs toggle you see in the Settings menu will become fully functional later this month in a follow up patch.

Two new achievements have been added, which will be bestowed upon you pending completion of the new campaign missions, as well as unlocking all the new additions to ACQUISITIONS. As of time of posting, the new achievements may not yet be fully functional - we are working on addressing this.

We have made some performance improvements to the engine that should hopefully impact lower-end machines. With the assistance of our community, we have also done a more thorough benchmarking of the game's hardware requirements on PC and Linux. The game's minimum specs to get an acceptable constant 60 fps at 720p (providing you turn off VSYNC, set NORMAL DETAILS to Low and turn off both POINT SHADOWS and DIRECTIONAL SHADOWS) on Windows are now:

OS: Windows 10
Processor: Dual core CPU with Passmark score of 2900 or more
Memory: 4 GB RAM
Graphics: AMD Radeon 5770 / NVIDIA GTX 460 or better
Storage: 1 GB available space

on Linux:

OS: Debian 10 or Ubuntu 20.04
Processor: Dual core CPU with Passmark score of 2900 or more
Memory: 4 GB RAM
Graphics: AMD Radeon 5770 / NVIDIA GTX 460 or better
Storage: 1 GB available space

Special thanks to Eschaton, Loki and Hara in particular for running benchmarking tests.

Lastly the game is now a stable 64 bit version for Windows, Mac and Linux.

We warned in our news post last week that modders should back up their copy of the game if they wished to preserve any changes. If you have not yet done so, the simplest way to back up a modded version of the game is to make a copy of your Brigador folder somewhere else on your computer. By default on PC this is usually
Due to the update we are still in the process of updating the community compilation to work with the new version of the game. In the next few weeks the Modkit & Map Editor DLC will be updated, along with a new community compilation in it after our follow up patch (many thanks to SCOREGOBLIN and our Discord Modding Experts for their feedback and work).

However, that won't prevent you from modding your copy of Brigador. If you are new to modding, we have a guide on how to get started (check out Section 4). You will still be able to tinker via the debug panel and change weapon damage values or fool around with other data in the game.

This update will be the last update for Mac OS platforms. This is for - but not limited to - two big reasons:

• Apple declared in mid-2018 that it has stopped supporting OpenGL which is the graphics library that Brigador relies on
  
• In 2020, Apple announced it was making a major shift from Intel processors to ARM-M1 CPUs

Both of these together mark a fundamental change in how Mac machines function. From this point on it is only a matter of time until OpenGL itself disappears from Apple's operating systems, and with it the ability to run Brigador. Though projects like MoltenGL exist, the amount of work that would be required to make Brigador functional on a modern Apple machine will be unjustifiable. That said, we don't expect any major updates to Brigador after this update, but from this point on we will no longer continue to support Mac devices. If you are a Mac user reading this in the future, please contact us at team(at)stellarjockeys(dot)com✉ about your store purchase.

[expand type=details]

• Updated to version 1.6 The Blood Anniversary
  
• Non-mechanical NPCs now leave a bloody mess on death
  
• Several weapons now leave impact craters on ground tiles
  
• Three new unlockable pilots added to Freelance: MT Foxtrot, Warlord Kanta and Brother Livewell Cotton
  
• Four new powersuit-focused missions operations added to Campaign mode: WE USED TO WAIT, IRIAN JAYA, SCANDAL NIGHT and SURF SOLAR
  
• Eleven vehicles are now available for purchase to play in Freelance mode: Monarch, Pellinore, Leviathan, Blackjack, Coffin, Usul, Widow, Zed Prime, Longboard, Brunhilde, and Fafnir
  
• Twelve vehicles now have auto-firing turrets installed: Monarch, Leviathan, Citadel, Rat King, Julius, Blackjack, Dragon, Usul, Aetos, Widow, Brunhilde, and Fafnir.
  
• "Brigadors" unlockable lore entry added to ACQUISITIONS
  
• Several balance changes (please refer to change log thread for full list)

• XNA Framework Redistributable 4.0 added to address launch issues with Windows 10 computers
  
• 64 bit builds for Windows, Mac & Linux
  
• Increased performance now that prop sprites update to only update props on screen (instead of whole level)
  
• Increased performance now that mech AI collision avoidance upper bound has been lowered

• Splash screen on startup changed
  
• In-game UI should now scale with the UI scale setting
  
• A new method to add long text strings to the game has been added (this will be detailed in our modding guide later)
  
• New welcome screen text and three new loading screen messages added
  
• All new interface texts localized into all 11 additional locales
  
• Credits updated

• New AUTO FIRE TOGGLE bind available in SETTINGS > BINDS
  
• EASTER EGGS, DISABLE GRAPHIC CONTENT, DISABLE DAMAGE EFFECTS and USE OLD LIGHTING toggles added to SETTINGS
  
• INVINCIBILITY, INVISIBILITY, REDUCED ENEMY AGGRO and INFINITE AMMO cheat toggles added to SETTINGS

• Audio levels of particular horn noises have been tweaked

• Modkit & Map Editor DLC is temporarily not functional - it will be updated to work with version 1.6 in a follow up patch in the coming weeks
  
• Packfile memory allocation increased by at least 40 MB
  
• Added various spatial overrides for gib data

For a detailed history of all change logs to the game, please refer to this thread on our discussion forums.

[/expand]

We hope you enjoy the update and thank you for reading! If you experience technical difficulties, please:

• Start a thread on our Technical Issues subforum (please read this pinned thread for the specific details to include in your message)
  
• Check out our #bug-reports channel on our Discord server.

- Stellar Jockeys

A detailed changelog will come with the update to Brigador: Up-Armored Edition itself, but like with our last update in December 2020, the update is going to affect both the game's assets packfile and reset the global.json to the intended state. This will nullify whatever mods you may have set up or other alterations you have made to the game's data. Click below to find out how to back up a copy of the game.

How to Back Up Brigador
[expand type=details]
The simplest way to back up a modded version of the game is to make a copy of your Brigador folder somewhere else on your computer. By default on PC this is usually


If you don't know where your copy of Brigador is on your computer, then:

1. Go to your Library tab in the Steam client
   
2. Right click Brigador
   
3. Click "Properties..."
   
4. Click "Local Files" in the window that appears
   
5. Click the "Browse" button

Steam will then open up the folder on your computer where Brigador is located. Copy and paste this entire folder somewhere else on to your machine and it will remain untouched by the update. The overall file size of the Brigador folder (with the modkit included) is typically under 2 GB in size.
[/expand]
Nothing to worry about - but maybe check out the game's existing community compilation within the modkit when you're ready? We have a guide on how to get started, how to make maps, and so on.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2464626495
We're looking forward to dropping the update to Brigador: Up-Armored Edition soon.

We’re running a week-long sale on Brigador and all its content from Monday April 19, 2021 to Monday April 26, 2021. Picking up the deluxe edition of Brigador at 57% off will net you:

• 1 x Brigador: Up-Armored Edition by Stellar Jockeys
  
• 1 x audiobook tie-in written by Brad Buckmaster & read by Ryan Cooper
  
• 4 x albums of original music by Makeup & Vanity Set (available as mp3s or FLACs)

If you’re already a long-time player of the game – thank you for your support! In case you’ve exhausted everything you have from the base game experience, here are a few other things you can do that you might not be aware of…

• Start tinkering with Brigador via the debug panel or get serious with the map editor. Here’s documentation to get you started.
  
• Check out our Discord server to find a selection of fan art, uploads by modders, and catch up on the events of the latest Brigador Discord RP (thanks, @Eschaton!).
  
• Support us further by buying merch like an SNC shirt or 3D-Printed 1/6 Scale Model Busts from our shop.
  
• Sing up to our monthly newsletter to see what we’ve been up to and a selection of the best from the community (here's the archive)

We know that we’ve been quiet on the dev front recently – thank you for all your questions. Please enjoy this recent entertaining discussion between Hugh and their friend Jon discussing the rationality behind a hypothetical form of space travel in the Brigador universe via something called “the Fugue”.

Happy holidays, everyone! Just a quick reminder to you all that the Steam Winter Sale ends on January 5th at 10:00 Pacific. As per usual, Brigador: Up-Armored Edition is 55% off, while the game + OSTs + audiobook bundle is even cheaper.

Outside of Steam we have a whole bunch of discounts going on over at our merch store. In no particular order:

• Enter code HOLIDAYS2020 in all caps at checkout for 20% off all products (minimum order value of one patch required). This offer expires January 8th 2021.
  
• New 1/6 Scale Model Busts - check out the first set of Modesto Pires, Ripley Snell and The Auditor 1/6 Scale busts here. Put all three in your basket and we’ll give you 15 USD off your order (N.B. sorry in advance but this discount will not stack with the holiday promotion in one single order).
  
• Low Profile variants are now available for the SNC shirt and patch - and there's also a new corvid patch too.
  
• For the next few days all SNC Skull & Laurel shirt sizes, shapes and colors are available for purchase. That means if you missed out on getting a Medium Red & Charcoal, or maybe you really want a few 3XLs for the winter – now’s your chance.

If you have any merch-related questions, or if you'd like to just email us, you can always reach us at team@stellarjockeys.com

Happy New Year!

- Stellar Jockeys Team

A small user interface update is coming to Brigador: Up-Armored Edition, but we wanted to give you all advance notice, particularly if you have been modding the game recently.

There are no gameplay changes involved with this update. The main change is the addition of a few buttons to the main menu screen that upon clicking will open your computer's default web browser.

IMPORTANT NOTE FOR ALL MODDERS

This update will restore the game's assets packfile to its vanilla state. That means that if you have modded content installed, such as custom pilot profile pictures, then they won't load as before as they will no longer be in the assets packfile. This means you will have to run through the modkit installation process again and make the necessary changes. We strongly recommend that you back up all your modded content and changes made to global.json to avoid losing anything prior to updating the game. Many of our experienced users in our Discord server's modding channel can help you out if you need assistance.

- Stellar Jockeys

Hey everyone! It's sale time once again, which means you can get the full Deluxe Edition bundle of the game + all OSTs + audiobook at 71% off for the duration of Steam's 2020 Halloween Sale.

We've also put together some detailed Brigador Modding Documentation that we hope will be of use to aspiring modders. Please feel free to leave your questions in the Steam forum thread - we will expand on it over time (you can find the google doc version here).


(image credit: Hara)

Hey everyone! We're proud to put Brigador: Up-Armored Edition up for sale again.

Just like previous promotions, the base game is 55% off, but if you want to treat yourself then the deluxe bundle of the game including all four Makeup And Vanity Set music albums and the audiobook by Brad Buckmaster is 71% off until 10:00 PST September 28th.

We'd also like to take a moment to shout out MandaloreGaming on YouTube, who made an incredible video on the game back in June - we're still picking through the thousand or so new reviews since the review boom. If you didn't catch it, check it out and leave Mandalore a like and subscribe!

We are delighted to have been selected for the Indie Mega Booth Going Away (For Now) Sale which runs for one whole week starting today. You can buy Brigador: Up-Armored Edition at 55% off, while the Deluxe Edition Bundle that includes the OSTs and audiobook along with the game is at an even larger discount.

In addition, we'll be streaming live from our Steam page on both Friday 8th and Saturday 9th from 15:00 to 17:00 PST. Join the stream to chat with us as we head into the weekend.

Brigador is part of the "Deliciously Difficulty" category of the IMB sale. All the other categories along with the full list of games in the IMB sale can be seen here on the IMB site.

You can now take part in the Powersuit Mini-Map Contest thanks to the efforts of our Discord community. In this contest your goal is to make a single short traditional campaign-style mission tailored for mog-scale combat on unusually small maps, so make every tile count!

Your four powersuit-sized loadouts are:

• Fick's Dorothy, a mouseholing brawler equipped with an Archie, Temblor, and smoke.
  
• Costa's Fence, a silent, deadly, CQB specialist equipped with a Black Hand, Donkey, and active camo.
  
• Salazar's Rope Kid, a hit-and-run harasser equipped with a Crambo, Carlos, and EMP.
  
• Aein's Paver, a trickster well-versed in the world's deadliest game of hide-and-go-seek, equipped with two fakers and active camo.

• One map submission per participant
  
• Map dimensions may not exceed 60x60 tiles in total
  
• Map must stipulate one objective (captains, garrison or buildings of your choice)
  
• At least one map exit
  
• Map must be completable with all four loadouts
  
• Map must feature some kind of enemy resistance
  
• Title, music, banner, difficulty, enemy faction(s), visual theme etc. are up to mapmaker
  
• Submissions should be sent to @SCOREGOBLIN via Discord on or before May 31st.

To help you get started, here's where to download our map editor tools
https://store.steampowered.com/app/468270/Brigador_Modkit__Map_Editor/
...here's a video tutorial on the map making process in Tiled explained by Jack and Hugh



...need a quick refresher on the four vehicles and weapons? Here's the Brigador wiki.

...and optionally, the community has prepared this powersuitcontest.zip file which contains pre-connected placeholder files using the four loadouts

NB: The pre-connected placeholder files using the four loadouts should be renamed and relinked before submission so that there are no file conflicts in the judge's folders. Submissions should be set up to run out of _modkit rather than the root game file structure. Along with the submission of all required materials (mission file, overmap file, lighting file, etc.), each submission should also have a declared difficulty level (easy, medium, or hard) and, optionally but highly encouraged, a small description of the concept and/or an in-universe mission briefing of appropriate length if the existing engine limit on mission descriptions is too restrictive.

Three judges from our community will give feedback on every map, and then collectively score them to decide the overall winner. The creator of the overall winning map will have their current discord icon added as an emoji in the server. Map submissions will be judged on gameplay, visual design, and uniqueness. Secondary elements, such as music, banner, mission name etc. while not being major criteria, will be considered. Lastly, the submitted maps will then be sequenced into a campaign run (e.g. G1, G2, G3…) to be later released as a downloadable public mission pack.

Got questions? Leave them below, or head over to our community Discord and ask any of the modding experts in the maps-and-modding channel.

Remember: send your submissions to @SCOREGOBLIN via Discord on or before May 31st.