The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated. But I do understand why it's been reported. So what does about 3 Months of Radio Silence get you? Well, not much to be honest. This update is more so just a small update and balance change to the Ani, Bateleur, and Magpie, as well as the addition of each manufacturer's last Core Bonuses.

The Ani is getting a small buff in terms of overall HP and to how it's Core Passive works, allowing for Damage, Heat, and Burn it does off turn to translate into Overshield Gain on the following turn.

The Bateleur is receiving a similar buff to its own Overshield production, but in turn its also getting a kind of side grade. At the cost of 2 HP, the Bateluer now natively comes with 1 Armor. Combined with the Overshields, the hope is that a player using all their resources shouldn't want for Health, but it should ensure that they aren't so hard to punish. Otherwise, the Bateleur has gotten a change to its Core Passive meant to stop a full Player Side team of Bateleurs from receiving some truly terrifying culminative bonuses.

The Magpie's updates focus on the balancing of the Frame Traits. After watching the Frame menace a few games, I decided to tweak how and where it got certain bonuses. This too is more of a side grade than a straight Nerf or Buff. The Magpie, with these changes, should be more independent, but in turn, it can't abuse Hidden as easily.

The new Core Bonuses are ultimately a creative concession, in more than one way. First of all, with both UF and AA having about as many frames as the base vanilla manufactures, it seemed only right to give them just as many core bonuses as a full manufacture. Concession one. But therein lies the second concession; what is actually possible on Comp/Con. This is by no means a complaint, but C/C can feel practically ubiquitous to the LANCER experience (to the point that I have considered making translated LCPs for this expansion), but C/C is equally limiting to what you can do. Certain things are hard coded into C/C. For instance, Preferential Acquisition was originally meant to be a Core Bonus that would let you nab an additional Unique Item, but, while that wouldn't be a problem for players at a table, the Hard Rule of one instance of Unique Item is hard coded into Comp/Con. Ultimately, I want any mechanics I introduce to be functionally compatible with the program that I know many LANCER players use for outlining their builds if not actually playing the game. So we compromise. This isn't a big problem for the first of these Core Bonuses; Makteba-Class Modding. This Core Bonus is for anyone who wished they could add multiple Mods to a Weapon, or felt split on which weapon on their weapon Mount should get the attention. As for the second of the new Core Bonuses though? Tri-C Twin Linking is a Core Bonus that allows for players to eek out a little more use from their mounted weapons, but originally it had a much more utility oriented goal of providing  players with a "Contingent" Mount. Think weapon switching, ala Armored Core. That being said, something like "adding a mount" is hard coded to C/C as far as I can tell, which means Core Bonuses such as Improved Armament, Integrated Weapon, and Superheavy Mounting are baked directly into C/C; it's not a mechanical option third party creators can play around with. Again, this isn't a complaint, but an acknowledgment of a mechanical limitation not shared w/ official content.

On the GM side of things, I still don't have plans to release the UF/A NPCs just yet. I would say that they need a little bit more time in the oven but that would imply that they've spent anytime cooking instead of just wrapped up in the freezer. Strained baking analogy aside, what I mean by this is that while the NPCs have continued to see some testing, they, as of late, haven't been my focus. While I don't want those who support and follow this content to become discouraged (I assure you, I'm still planning on releasing the NPC data), I do think it's important to know that I have been working on other projects in the interim. Lancer as a whole just really hasn't been my focus as of late.

While I won't expand upon it here, my new project is a TTRPG System with a focus on creating the feeling of "Emergent Gameplay" by focusing on an Input + Command Chain style system of mechanics. Ultimately, this project is for myself, but if ever published, you know where to find it. That being said, it has been one of the reasons as to why there hasn't been even minor updates to the UF/A Project as of late. Another reason is honestly just that, on the player's side of things, the content is very stable. There have been no major issues or flaws noted in the balancing of the player side content, and the GM Side content hasn't been publicly released. Art for the Grackle is currently in production, as is art for the Awokera (Art is being done in alphabetical order, alternating between manufactures) but ultimately commissions take time to fulfil. And finally, while the UF/A campaign is something that I would love to pursue, it's scale is beyond the attention I can give it as sole developer. Monetization isn't that important to me, but such a project requires more capital than I can conjure on my own, and I'm not currently looking at Crowd Funding.

As for now, UF/A is entering a sort of soft "Maintenance Mode". There will still be updates, but Player Side Updates will really just consist of Art for the Frames and Balance Patches when issues are reported to me. The only Major Playerside Update planned for the future is the addition of the long awaited Bonds, but as I push through more testing Bonds and UF/A NPC data will also become available. Beyond that however, I don't have much to report. As always, I just hope people enjoy the options made available to them. I'm happy to be able to continue this project, and can't wait for supporters to see more art for the mechs as they come out. The Soft Goals I have for the future is to get The FTL Expansion officially recognized on Comp/Con (I was going to pursue that once the Bonds or NPCs were made available) and potentially to get some of the Frame Designed translated to Pixel Art Counterparts on Retrograde (though I have no solid timeline for this goal). As always, thank you for taking interest in FTL, and may your Structure and Stress rolls always be high.