Welcome to the Grave to the Rave Update for Brigador: Up-Armored Edition on PC, Mac and Linux! Without further ado let’s get into it.

It turns out a number of you really liked the auto-firing weapons on ultra class vehicles in the last update. With that in mind we ran a mapping competition via our Discord which has resulted in the Grave To The Rave operation for Freelance mode. Be warned: unlike other freelance runs, this one is configured to be tackled by Ultra-class vehicles because more enemies will spawn. Will you make it out alive?

Special thanks to Aniviron, Briggs, Cosmic Crow, SCOREGOBLIN and Commander for their efforts.

Following many requests, the game will now save your progress to disk if you resign from a Freelance run after completing one or more of the maps in that run for that specific operation. A freelance op that has its progress saved is marked with an asterisk after the name.

Please note that this is only visible in the OPERATIONS tab of Freelance mode. If you’re resuming a run after some time, don’t worry about replicating your exact loadout – the save file keeps all that. You just have to navigate over to that last tab and click the marked run to retrieve the saved data. More details on how this feature functions can be read in the Full Changelog at the bottom of this post.

So, if you’ve been angling to finally take on Closed Casket Special but not had the time to do so, you can completely quit the game and resume your run at a later point.

A new SETTINGS menu tab has appeared titled INTERFACE COLORS

This allows you to change the RGBA value of almost all of the UI text elements (exceptions being “hard” assets like the images for specials) to whatever color you want. Want to just make your ammo counters brighter, or the objective messages obnoxious neon green? Be our guest.

The ability to change these colors via the global.json in the debug menu already existed – we’ve just made a lot of them available on the front end. If you end up making your UI into a completely unreadable mess, you can restore the default color values by clicking RESTORE DEFAULTS under the GENERAL tab though please note that currently this will also restore other defaults like audio levels and monitor resolution (if things get really bad and you can’t even see your UI anymore then use the debug menu – check out section 4 of our modding documentation to learn how).

A value that affects how vehicles reverse while using one of the Absolute control methods (or “twin stick” style) has finally been added for all player-controlled vehicles. This means that if you have the REVERSING WITH ABSOLUTE toggle on while using your Absolute control method of choice, all vehicles will now be consistent in how they reverse.

Our official set of modkit tools had been unusable since version 1.5c i.e. prior to Blood Anniversary update – this has now changed. The reason for this is during Blood Anniversary’s development we were frequently adding new assets to the game’s packfile (the “unpacked” version of this file is one of things that’s in the modkit tools), so rather than a leapfrogging process of updating the game, then updating the modkit, then updating the game again and then updating the modkit again we shelved it until things were stable. Within the modkit you will also find an updated community compilation and a readme.txt explaining the installation process.
N.B. to Mac users - due to reasons beyond our control (see a previous update post for context), it is unlikely that Mac users will be able to mod their copy of the game.

This is our penultimate update to Brigador: Up-Armored Edition. We are setting aside time for one more update of similar scale for the winter holidays, after which we hope to finally consider our first game as feature-complete and focus on exclusively developing our second game Brigador Killers, which you can help us out by wishlisting.

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• Updated to version 1.63 Grave To The Rave for Windows, Mac & Linux
  
• Six map long non-linear ultra-class focused operation “Grave to the Rave” added to Freelance mode, featuring: Fallow Junction, Bereavement Zone, Soberano Base, Edy & Lazar Private Mausoleum, Mass Grave and The Last Stop Spaceport
  
• Resign & resume (“save”) function added to Freelance mode
  
• Resign & resume only works for one operation at a time
  
• Dying mid-run or successfully completing a run will delete the save file
  
• The operation save file is stored as a file titled sv and is found in the same folder as the game’s .exe e.g. C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Brigador
  
• Yes, you can back up this sv file and overwrite it if you’ve been having a good run but then Bad Things Happen; No, you will not be penalized by us for doing so
  
• Do not lose or delete your profile.json between resigning and resuming a run – this will likely affect your ability to select the operation marked with an asterisk

• Forward pref ratio added to all playable vehicles allowing for consistent vehicle behavior when reversing while using Absolute control schemes

• New welcome screen text added
  
• New splash screen added
  
• All new interface texts localized into all 11 additional locales

• INTERFACE COLORS tab added to SETTINGS containing the RGBA values of most of the game’s UI text elements

• Modkit & Map Editor DLC should now be functional with Brigador version 1.63
  
• Community compilation updated

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 crash bug slipped by us, so I've reverted the update to the previous known good build, from August 10. Sorry for the inconvenience.

We'll fix the bug and put the modkit back up next week.

Vehicle Handling:

• Tweaked the forward pref ratio for all vehicles; Brigadors using SCREEN ABSOLUTE control schemes are now able to reverse. Please use this newfound power with responsibility.

Optimization:

• Revert sprite drawing changes which were causing performance hits on older systems
  
• Minor improvements to drawing player sprite

Modkit:

• Updated modkit and community compilation to v2. This should enable modding of Brigador after the Blood Anniversary changes. Please see <Brigador dir>/modkit/readme.txt for updated instructions, or visit the #maps-and-modding channel in our Discord for further help.

Mac Platform:
- Corrected a build tools error which led to achievements being temporarily disabled on Steam for Mac users. Thank you to members of our Discord who were instrumental in reporting the problem.

Menu Links:
- Discord invite link updated. If you had clicked the "Feedback" button and saw an "Invalid invite" link in the last day or two, please try it again.

ZED SPEAKS AGAIN:

• "Rebuke" horns (horns with a vocal component) should once again be audible.

Meatless Loadout Menu:

• Hitting the "Randomize" option should no longer assign you easter egg content when easter egg content has been disabled. SNC Obligate Munitions tenders its apologies.

Achievements:

• * BLOOD ANNIVERSARY PT. 2, SMALL STAKES, ON A SWIVEL, and NO PLAN SURVIVES should now count the relevant equipment accurately & trigger correctly. We've spoken to the Auditor, who insists that it was reality which was mistaken.
  
  Note: If you've already unlocked all the relevant vehicles or weapons, you should earn these achievements the next time you play the game after updating. Please ensure that you've received the update by checking the main menu: the string at the top of the screen should read "BRIGADOR v1.62 - b15fc4e5". If it shows a different string, please make sure you are on the default branch, and restart Steam or verify the game files to trigger the update. (Verifying the files will reset the game files to a vanilla state and clear any installed mods.)
  
  
• * NOT ONE STONE target earning amount lowered to 1 million credits, rather than the previous amount of 10 million. The SNC wishes contractors to be enfranchised in any destruction strategy they wish to adopt in the name of colonial liberation. The SNC also tenders its congratulations to those Brigadors who created such extraordinary destruction over the last four years.

Misc. fixes:

• * The console now displays a useful amount of the log history, instead of "hardly any"
  
• * Console should scroll normally again (some edge cases are still being addressed)

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”.