When the Harebrained Schemes BATTLETECH TBS launched in 2018, it was not just another new strategy game. It filled a gap that had been sitting there for a very long time. Since MechCommander 2, PC players had basically not received a proper BattleTech or MechWarrior strategy game, neither real-time nor turn-based.

There were one or two mobile and half-finished browser-based attempts, sure, but none of them delivered the AA+ game experience old fans had been waiting for.

Things were not exactly overflowing on the action game front either. MechWarrior 4 was already well into veteran age by then, and as a modern PC alternative there was essentially the free-to-play MechWarrior Online, which was a good thing, but obviously served a very different need than a single-player tactical BattleTech campaign.

Because of the copyright disputes that have surrounded the franchise almost since its birth, and because of the deteriorated relationship between developer Harebrained Schemes and publisher Paradox Interactive, we probably should not expect a sequel any time soon.

The small but extremely dedicated community, however, was starving for Battletech content, so plenty of smaller and larger mods were made. Some only added small quality-of-life features or a couple of new units.

Others, however, change the original game almost from the ground up. The three most popular larger mods:

• BattleTech Extended - Tactics (BEXT): Previously known as Battletech Extended (BEX), this expansion keeps the original game's ruleset almost entirely intact, but greatly expands the available units and missions, while also introducing a dynamic timeline.
• RogueTech: rebuilds the HBS game from the ground up and turns it into a huge Battletech sandbox. This overhaul is the closest to the ruleset of the original tabletop game. Hardcore fans only!
• BattleTech Advanced Universe (BTAU): sits somewhere between the two previous mods. It brings the vanilla game's mechanics closer to the tabletop rules, but still keeps the complexity within the range of a human brain. The strategy and management side also gets expanded beyond the tactical layer, and you will run into a ridiculous number of new mechs and vehicles that were missing from the base game. It is an ideal choice if you have already figured out the original ruleset and want more. This is the one we are going to take a closer look at installing. The mod was previously known as BattleTech Advanced 3062. Unfortunately, even the official documentation and the official installer are not fully consistent. Keep in mind that BTA, BTA3062, BTAU, BTA:U... all refer to the same thing.

Requirements

The mod is fairly massive. In my case, the installer downloaded almost 35 GB into its cache and placed another 18 GB into the game's Mods directory. So you will need at least that much free space on one of your drives.

You will also need at least half an hour, maybe closer to a full hour. The installation itself is only a few steps, but depending on the servers and the speed of your internet connection, the download can take quite a while.

If you have already installed any mods for Battletech, make sure you back them up, because BTAU will overwrite everything.

It is not mandatory, but the whole process will be more comfortable if you connect a monitor, keyboard and mouse to the Steam Deck for the duration of the installation.

Installation

I tried to keep the installation steps short and compact, so the guide remains easy to follow. If this is your first time installing a mod, or you are simply not that comfortable with the Linux-related parts, you can click the arrow next to the steps to open the extended explanation.

This guide is based on the directory structure of the Steam Deck and SteamOS, but it will probably be usable on most Linux systems as well.

1. Switch to Desktop Mode on the Deck

   STEAM button > Power > Switch to Desktop

2. Launch Steam
3. Set Steam Linux Runtime 1.0 (scout) as the compatibility runtime for Battletech

   1. Select the cogwheel icon next to the game name
   2. Choose Properties...
   3. Open the Compatibility tab
   4. Tick Force the use of a specific Steam Play compatibility tool
   5. From the dropdown menu, select Steam Linux Runtime 1.0 (scout)
   6. If the game is not installed yet, install it
4. Before installing the mod, you need to launch the game at least once.

   Click Play and wait until the main menu loads, then exit the game.

5. If Battletech is installed in the default location on the internal drive, create a symbolic link with the ln -s ~/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/ ~/steamgames command.

   1. Launch the Konsole terminal emulator, or another application that gives you access to the command line
   2. Type ln -s ~/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/ ~/steamgames and press Enter.

   With this command, you create what is called a "symbolic link". The steamgames directory in our home folder will point to the directory that contains your downloaded Steam games. It is somewhat similar to a Windows shortcut.

   This is necessary because the ~/.local directory is hidden on Linux, since its name starts with a dot. It is freely accessible and editable, but it will not show up in the BTA Launcher's file browser, so we would not be able to select the Battletech installation path.

   The steamgames name is completely optional. You can call it anything you like. This link will not point directly to the installed Battletech directory, but to its parent directory, where your other games are located as well. This way you can later use the same link for other mods with similarly Windows-style installers.

6. Download the latest version of the BTA Launcher strictly through the official BTA Mod download link.
7. Extract the downloaded BTAdvancedLauncher.zip file.

   It can be placed anywhere where you have at least 35 GB of free space. I chose the ~/BTA directory.

8. Add the extracted BTAAdvancedLauncher.exe to Steam as a non-Steam game.

   1. In the Steam window, select Games > Add a Non-Steam Game to My Library... from the top menu.
   2. Click Browse in the bottom left.
   3. In the window that appears, browse to the extracted BTAAdvancedLauncher.exe inside the ~/BTA directory.
   4. Click Add Selected Programs in the bottom right.
   5. The Launcher will now be available in the game list on the left side of Steam.
9. Set Proton 8.0-5 as the runtime for the Launcher

   1. In the game list on the left, select the cogwheel icon next to BTAAdvancedLauncher.exe
   2. Choose Properties...
   3. Open the Compatibility tab
   4. Tick Force the use of a specific Steam Play compatibility tool
   5. From the dropdown menu, select Proton 8.0-5

   It really is important to start the launcher with exactly this version. It may be possible to get it running with other versions after some fiddling, but with 8.0 it starts right away.

10. Run the Launcher from Steam, still in Desktop Mode.
11. On first start, the Launcher will probably warn you that you need to configure the basic settings. You can safely confirm this.
12. Select the Battletech installation location under the BattleTech Exe Path option.
    1. If you used the symbolic link method above, you will find it in the left-side tree under Desktop > / > home > deck > steamgames > BATTLETECH > BattleTech.exe.
    2. After pressing Ok, you should see Z:/home/deck/steamgames/BATTLETECH/BattleTech in the text field. Yes, the .exe extension does not appear here.
13. Select the mod you want to install from the BTA Install Type dropdown menu. For a first run, the BTA-Light variant is recommended. It is already huge and contains a ton of new content.
14. Close the User Preferences window with the X in the top right.
15. If you are doing the installation on the Steam Deck's own screen: top menu > Banners > No-banner. This makes the fields and buttons we need fit on the screen.
16. By default, the Browse button next to Install Target is disabled. To enable it, press the Advanced Mode button in the bottom left.
17. Under Install Target, browse to the installed game's Mods directory

    If you used the symbolic link method above, you will find it in the left-side tree under Desktop > / > home > deck > steamgames > BATTLETECH > Mods.

18. Click Update/Install BTA and be patient. The first run can take anywhere from half an hour to a full hour.

    On first launch, the Launcher downloads all packages next to the BTAAdvancedLauncher.exe file, which takes quite some time.

    On later runs, it only checks how up to date the download cache is and downloads only the updates, so the process will be much faster.

19. Select the mod components you want to install. Make sure to select ModTek > Install ModTek and Fire Option for Linux Users > Old Fire for Linux Users. If you own DLCs, also select the packages that belong to them.

    On first launch, the Launcher opens this window automatically. Later, you can access it with the Reconfigure BTA button.

20. Click OK.
21. In the popup window, click Yes. The Launcher warns you here that it will delete the entire Mod folder before installation, so any other existing installed mods may be lost.
22. Once the process is finished, close the Launcher.
23. Make the BTA launch script executable with the chmod +x ~/steamgames/BATTLETECH/run.sh command.

    On Linux, whether a file is executable does not depend on whether it has an .exe extension. It depends on whether it has an "eXecutable", meaning executable, attribute. We add that to it with the chmod command above.

24. In Steam, add ./run.sh %command% to Battletech's launch options.

    1. Cogwheel icon
    2. Properties...
    3. General tab
    4. Launch Options field, paste it here.
25. Launch the game from Steam.

    If you did everything correctly, the ModTek loading window will already appear during startup, so you can tell that BTAU was installed successfully. The main menu background will also change. Desktop Mode was only needed to start the launcher. From this point on, you can launch the game normally from Game Mode as well.

    Although the launcher also has a Launch BTA 3062 button, it only works on Windows, not on Linux.

26. Start a new career and show the universe who the most resourceful MechWarrior really is! Have fun!

Notes about the BTAU mod

Since the expansion adds a huge number of new things to the game, it also amplifies the memory leak issue that already exists in the base game. For me, vanilla Battletech only stuttered for half a second here and there if it had been running for many hours, but it never crashed. Well, the modded version threw in the towel after 3 or 4 hours on the Deck. The developers also recommend saving and restarting the game every 2 or 3 missions, even with the Light version.

Because of all the new units, weapons and mechanics, the creators decided to disable saving during missions and restarting missions. This is important to keep in mind, because a single deployment can easily take several hours, so you need to finish it in one sitting. Fortunately, the modded game still tolerates suspending the Deck fairly well, so suspend can be a solution if you need to interrupt a battle for some reason.

The maps also become much larger, so long-range weapons get a much more serious role.

Among the rule changes, the most obvious one is that, in line with the original ruleset, a unit's Evasion value is not reduced in this mod just because someone shoots at it, which means you have to rethink the strategies that worked so well in vanilla. Sensor Lock and electronic warfare are not optional here, they are mandatory tools, and Light Mechs become much more valuable.

Listing every single new feature would take an entire article series, so I am linking a few resources that can help both complete beginners and OG Battletech veterans get up to speed. Be prepared that this reading and video watching can also eat up a few, or maybe a few dozen, hours.

Tutorials and info

• Official Battletech BTAU Wiki: where you can find all information in written form.
  • Official installation guide
  • Official questions and answers (FAQ)
• BattleTech Advanced Universe Discord server: if you have a question, you will almost certainly get an answer here.
• MangaMaD's "Battletech Advanced 3062 Bitesize" YouTube Playlist: a themed video series that walks you through the specifics of the BTAU mod. It is not exactly new. At the time of writing this article, it is already more than 5 years old, so some parts may be outdated. Its huge advantage, however, is that it consists of short, 10-15 minute thematic videos, so it is easy to consume and also easy to search back through later.
• Battletech on Reddit: not only BTAU, but general Battletech discussion as well.
• How Long to Beat page: how long it took people to finish the game.
• The game's ProtonDB page: Linux and Steam Deck compatibility info.

A huge tragedy had struck: one of the hinges on our beloved toilet seat had broken.

Right where the fitting, which already looked like a rather weak casting, was at its thinnest, barely 1 mm thick.

I am not accusing anyone of planned obsolescence. All I am saying is that if I had to design a part that breaks after a few years, I might also choose a material thickness something like this.

Since I did not feel like going to the shop just for this, I figured I would fix it the hacky way.

Prep and measuring

I grabbed my digital caliper and started taking measurements. It was not especially comfortable to hold the broken pieces together with one hand while measuring with the other, because they kept sliding apart. So I thought I would temporarily glue them together with superglue.

Since the superglue held it together surprisingly well, I thought, fine, this will do. I reassembled the seat, and it has been working ever since. End of article.

3D modeling in FreeCAD

Unfortunately, it was not quite that simple. So I went back to the original plan and started modeling the hinge, so I could make its 3D printed successor.

The piece stabilized with glue was much easier to measure.

Parameters

One of the huge advantages of FreeCAD is that it also supports parametric modeling. In Fusion 360 you can create variables for important values, while in FreeCAD the easiest way is to add them to the built-in spreadsheet and give them aliases, creating reusable values.

I really like this feature for several reasons.

First, you do not have to juggle with random numbers in your head. You can give them meaning and purpose with a name.

Second, it is practical. If the model needs fine-tuning, you only have to change a value in one place, and everywhere that value appears, either by itself or as part of a formula, it updates immediately.

Third, it is usually good for productivity too. I try to add as many values as possible upfront. This forces me to think through in advance what I actually want to make and how. As a result, the modeling itself becomes a linear, almost boring process. There is no need to jump back and forth and possibly redo things several times.

So I added every potentially important width, length and thickness.

Base hinge ring

Although the lugged part (Is it the correct English term? Lugs? Gears? Teeth?) was the one that broke, I wanted to replicate both pieces. Partly for aesthetic reasons, and partly because its counterpart had a similar thickness, so it probably would have broken sooner or later as well.

This plain ring-shaped piece looked the same apart from the lugs, and had the same dimensions. Since this was the simpler shape, I started with this one.

First I created its side-view sketch in the Sketcher workbench. Every value comes from the spreadsheet I filled in earlier.

As you can see, I changed one thing compared to the original dimensions. Instead of 1 mm, the ring thickness became 4 mm. Maybe it will hold up better.

Then I padded this sketch, meaning I extruded it into 3D. I chose a symmetric Pad, because this makes it easier later to find the centerline, for example for the screw holes.

The final shape is not this simple. You can probably see it somewhat in the original photos: the flat part is wider, and the ring part narrows through a transition.

I started with the side-view sketch because the object has more character from that side. That is the more defining shape.

To make it look more like the original, and also to make sure it actually fits in its place, this narrowing had to be solved.

Unfortunately, I did not take a screenshot of this step, and it is somewhat hard to reverse in FreeCAD, so I will just describe what happened.

For the Pad of the side-view sketch, I used the larger value, meaning the width of the flat part.

Then, on the plane of the extruded flat part, I created a new sketch: the top-view silhouette of the hinge. I padded this sketch too. Its size does not need to be exact. The important thing is that it must extend beyond the hinge. Then I used a Boolean operation to take the union of the two objects. This is what it looked like afterwards:

With that, the shape of the part was done. Next, I "drilled" the screw holes.

Once again, I created a new sketch on the flat part. This was basically just two circles. The diameter of the circles is irrelevant, only the position of their centers matters. Then I turned these two circles into holes with the Hole feature. In the parameters, I set the dimensions for the original countersunk chipboard screws.

At this point, everything was finally in place. As the last step, I rounded the corners with the Fillet feature. In FreeCAD too, it is worth postponing fillets and chamfers for as long as possible. This saves a lot of headaches if you later need to modify the parameters of any earlier operation.

Lugged hinge ring

As I mentioned, the lugged piece is the same as this plain ring-shaped one, except... it has a few little lugs. Since I am lazy, and this model was only meant for one-time use anyway, I did not overengineer it.

The plan was to create only the lugs, then for printing I would simply export the smooth ring piece by itself once, and then export it again with the lugs added.

Since I started the original side-view sketch with the center of the ring exactly on the origin, it was very easy to create a new object starting from the exact same place.

With a few construction lines and the values from the spreadsheet, the sketch was ready.

This was also padded into 3D.

Here is how the two objects look together.

Printing

I exported the two variants to 3MF, sliced them with Orca, and sent them to the printer. I printed them lying flat, because this should make them strongest against the force they will experience while the seat is flipped up and down.

The shoulders needed a bit of support.

A Creality Ender-3 V3 Plus spat them out. It finished these two small parts pretty quickly.

Sanding and painting

To stop the white plastic from standing out so much where the original part used to be, I sanded it a little and sprayed it with acrylic paint and clear coat.

Unfortunately, I did not have a really good chrome-effect spray at home, so this "silver" had to do.

The result

There was nothing left to do but wait for it to dry and reassemble the seat. I think the original chrome and the slightly more satin, aluminum-like finish do not look too bad next to each other. And since I usually sit with my back to it anyway, I do not really care that much.

I could say I do not give a shit, but luckily now I can!

Closing words

Obviously, a toilet seat is not very expensive. On top of that, replacement hardware is available separately for this model, and that is even cheaper. But that is not really what this hobby is about. It simply feels good to exercise the brain with some design work, and the stepper motors by shaping filament that has been gathering dust on the shelf into something useful.

Besides, this gives our significant other one more example of why that several hundred euro investment was absolutely unnecessary.

The construction has been holding up for several weeks now, and I am sure it will last a good while longer. So the operation was a success.

Eugen Systems' successful World War II strategy game, R.U.S.E., is available again. The game originally released in 2010, then quietly disappeared from stores in 2015.

The return was announced in this Steam post.

Background

This RTS was developed by one of the big names in strategy genre, Eugen Systems, and published by Ubisoft in the fall of 2010.

At release, it received positive reviews from both players and critics.

Alongside its then relatively rare, fully fluid zoom system that let you seamlessly move from a full strategic overview down to unit-level detail, the other major innovation was the introduction of so-called “ruses” or deceptions.

Infamous World War II intelligence and espionage tactics, diversionary guerrilla actions, makeshift bases built from plywood and papier-mâché, and even entire fake armies all play a role in the game. These tricks can be deployed as cards using points, adding a whole new layer to direct head-on engagements.

Platforms

In a somewhat unusual move for the time, the game didn't just release on PC, but also on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, giving console players a chance to try themselves in the largest conflict in human history.

The delisting

In 2015, citing the expiration of third-party licenses, Ubisoft began removing the game from both digital and physical store shelves. As usual, players who already owned R.U.S.E. could still install and play it, but it was no longer available through official channels.

As a result, prices went wild on eBay and in grey and black market key stores. A game that once sold for around €10 would often go for €100-200, and naturally, piracy also picked up.

The fact that people were willing to pay these kinds of prices says a lot about how unique the game is. A small but dedicated player base is still fighting large battles on virtual battlefields even nearly 16 years after release. Not many strategy games can say that.

The return

In May 2026, Eugen Systems decided to bring the game back, this time self-published.

And they didn't just relist it on Steam, they launched it with a massive 2.3 GB patch. This fixes a number of long-standing issues and also adds official Steam Deck support. Since the game already had controller support, it's likely one of the more playable RTS titles on Valve's handheld.

The €30 launch price might raise a few eyebrows, but this is very much a classic. There's no official word yet, but based on Eugen's other titles, it will probably see solid discounts during sales.

Closing thoughts

This is a rare and genuinely refreshing bit of news in the gaming world. Comebacks like this don't happen often, but hopefully other games will follow R.U.S.E.'s example.

Many games released after 2010 were distributed only digitally and protected by always-online DRM. When publishers pulled them, they were effectively lost, surviving only in memories and old gameplay videos.

While the Stop Killing Games movement is trying to push for better preservation, it doesn't apply retroactively. The fate of older games still largely depends on the goodwill of developers and publishers. Hopefully more will follow Eugen's lead, and we'll still be playing our favorites decades from now.

Links

• Wikipedia page of the game
• Fan wiki with tips and guides
• SteamDB page
• R.U.S.E. subreddit
• Relisting megathread on Reddit

We didn't have to wait long for the new version, 0.28.3 with minor bug fixes is available.

Based on our tests, the previously experienced error has definitely been fixed. Playback now resumes from where it left off.

The latest version of the popular privacy-oriented alternative YouTube client, NewPipe, is available, 0.28.1, which contains a lot of bug fixes and improvements.

You can find a detailed list of changes in the official blog post.

My personal experience is that it now successfully plays videos that it had problems with in the past few days, but it seems that it cannot continue stopped videos, it always starts playing them from the beginning.