currently version:https://github.com/Zanieon/NorthstarMods/pull/12/commits/fe3fde3b362441a5ae07c7b43191b90b14880763

Experimental Frontier Defense

Branch made to expand Frontier Defense feature set by adding back cut content while respecting the vanilla defaults of the game.

Notable differences from main gamemode_fd branch:

• Droz & Davis are way more talkative as they used to be in vanilla (probably even more since they are using some cut lines that vanilla never plays)
• Several maps had their navmeshes rebuilt to mitigate enemies from idling on place
• Grunt Dropship spawn event
• Titanfall Block event (cut content)
• Elite Titans variants (cut content)
• Enemy Titans moves slower as they used to do in vanilla (Except Ronins, Mortars and Elites)
• Enemy Titans will not melee the Harvester anymore as in vanilla
• Nuke Titans will never melee and always spawn with shields regardless difficulty set as they also do in vanilla
• Arc Titans have an option to use the Arc Cannon instead of Leadwall, making them similar to what they were in Titanfall 1
• Harvester have proper damage filters, meaning certain enemies will hit it harder, again similar to vanilla behavior
• All maps from vanilla have waves based on their respective spawns, all other maps utilizes custom waves
• During wave break time, players do not respawn on dropship, neither new connecting players, they will deploy via Drop Pod instead
• Reapers will deploy ticks, despite them still not being able to jump on rooftops, they still pose a high threat
• Like in vanilla, Titan selection menu now only appears on match start, and players can still select another Titan during the entirety of Wave 1, after that, Titans selection locks and Wave Restarts does not bring the Titan selection menu anymore
• Fixes Autotitans not having overlay on them to see them through walls
• Fixes Offline turrets not having their yellow overlay, neither their repair sound
• Fixes the problem with players not getting instant full Titan Meter upon wave restart as vanilla does
• Fixes Grunts not being able to use their Anti-Titan weaponry
• Failsafe code that kills stuck Grunts and Stalkers inside geometry to prevent softlocking
• Properly setup the tutorial hints to appear only once per match, and not every time they attempt to trigger
• Some Live Fire Maps are playable, and have some differences on mechanics than normal maps

Titanfall Block and Elite Titan Events

Titanfall Block is a mechanic where Davis will say he can't drop a Titan anymore in the middle of a wave, from that moment until the end of the wave all players will stop earning their Titan meters, if their meter is full and ready to call, it will empty and lock on 0%. Pilots with Titans will still remain with theirs, losing it is permanent. This mechanic brings up a whole new perspective for players whereas they should play more carefully with their Titans, and those who lost theirs should be aiding the others by stealing batteries from the enemies.

Elite Titans are buffed up variants of normal Titans, they are piloted by Grunts with the following properties:

• Uses Prime Titan models
• Not affected by the difficulty rules, meaning they will always spawn with a huge shield amount and an even bigger health pool
• No slower movement like the normal Titans
• Better accuracy
• Can use their Cores
• They can Execute Players
• They can use e-smoke to kill pilots trying to rodeo them
• Drop a Battery on Easy and Regular Difficulties or drop an Amped Battery in Hard, Master and Insane difficulties similar to campaign Titans

Warning: Elite Titans' melee have a special mechanic called ENF (Execution Next Frame), in which said Elite Titan will immediately chain execution the first frame the game registers a titan as doomed (auto or player) from the melee attack that has doomed them! This mechanic respects Stealth Auto-Eject and Ronin's Phase Reflex, and will not trigger immediate execution.

Live-Fire Frontier Defense

Uses its own playlist mode now, you need to setup gamemode and playlist variable to fd_livefire for server hosting, the gameplay rules are:

• Meadow, Deck, Township, UMA are playable
• Pilot-only gameplay
• Only 3 Waves with huge amounts of non-stop spawning enemies, infantry mostly
• Loadouts can be changed at any time during a wave in the Loadout Crates
• Droz and Davis helps players in person by guarding the Harvester
• Players recieve the double amount of money bonuses when completing a wave
• Players can have 3 Turrets instead of 2
• Players forcibly have gravity star as grenade
• Players have limited Anti-Titan ammo, restock possible at Loadout Crate
• Grunts will always have one shield captain in their squads and will always have Anti-Titan weapons
• Stalkers will always spawn with EPG independant of the difficulty setting
• Players have a single "public" Titan to use called 'Helper Titan', pilots approaching this Titan gains ownership, staying away clears it

New console variables

Use these variables in your autoexec_ns_server cfg to control them:

• ns_fd_grunt_primary_weapon Array of weapons that Grunts are allowed to use, they will randomly chose one of those to spawn with
• ns_fd_spectre_primary_weapon Array of weapons that Spectres are allowed to use, they will randomly chose one of those to spawn with
• ns_fd_infantry_at_weapons Array of weapons Anti-Titan weapons that Grunts and Spectres will attempt to use on Master or Insane difficulty, they will randomly chose one of those to spawn with
• ns_fd_grunt_grenade Override the grenade type that Grunts can use
• ns_fd_disable_respawn_dropship Default is 0, setting to 1 makes players respawn via Drop Pod or directly on ground nearby the Harvester or Shop
• ns_fd_min_numplayers_to_start Default is 1, this is the required amount of players in a match in order for the game to start the waves
• ns_reaper_warpfall_kill Default is 1, set to 0 if you don't want Reapers to kill Titans on their Warpfall
• ns_ronin_fair_phase Default is 0, setting to 1 will make Ronin not kill himself if he materializes inside an enemy Titan from Phase Shift, instead he will only apply 5000 damage to the target titan

New playlist variables

Use these variables in your setplaylistvaroverrides argument to control them:

• fd_allow_elite_titans Default is 0, set to 1 to allow Elite Titans to spawn in
• fd_allow_titanfall_block Default is 0, setting to 1 will allow some maps to make usage of the Titanfall Block event
• fd_arc_titans_uses_arc_cannon Default is 0, setting it to 1 makes Arc Titans uses the Arc Cannon instead of Leadwall
• fd_campaign_shield_captains Default is 0, set to 1 to allow Shield Captains from campaign to spawn in Master or Insane difficulty
• fd_campaign_ticks Default is 0, setting to 1 will make Ticks from Drop Pod spawns to use the campaign model to tell players they counts towards wave completion
• fd_grunts_uses_grenades Default is 0, setting to 1 will allow Grunts to toss grenades
• fd_visible_drop_points Default is 0, setting to 1 will show Titanfall markers for spawning enemies akin to when you call your own Titan
• fd_smart_pistol_easy_mode Default is 0, setting it to 1 will make players have the Smart Pistol as secondary weapon in Easy difficulty mode
• fd_rodeo_highlight Default is 0, setting to 1 enables the new behavior of pilots highlight becoming green whenever they rodeo any Titan
• fd_minimap_ping_sound Default is 0, setting to 1 will play a subtle ping sound whenever minimap pings an enemy spawning
• fd_dropship_battery_drop Default is 0, setting to 1 makes IMC Dropships drops an Amped Battery if they are killed
• enable_rocket_turrets Default is 0, setting to 1 replaces the Sentry Turrets with the unused Rocket Turret

Trivia hints for server hosters

These are playlist overrides you can include in your server settings to control better how the match will behave:

• You can actually force Grunts to use Anti-Titan weaponry outside Master and Insane difficulties, use fd_grunt_at_weapon_users with the amount of grunts you want to use AT weapons, can go from 1 to 4, this is based in the squads of Drop Pods, so 4 would be all Grunts using them
• You can also do the same to shield captains by using fd_grunt_shield_captains, same rules applies from above setting
• It's possible to change the time of wave breaks duration with fd_wave_buy_time, default is 60 seconds
• It's possible to enable the campaign behavior of picking up batteries by setting rodeo_battery_disembark_to_pickup to 0, so running over batteries as Titan picks them up
• It's possible to enable the Titanfall 1 behavior of hacking spectres by setting enable_spectre_hacking to 1