Genre: Real Time Strategy (RTS), Strategy, Tactical, Indie
AirMech
Huge AirMech Reboot/Split - Part 4: AirMech Strike is GO
It is time. For too long AirMech has sat in a sad state. I covered how it got to this point, and what we have been doing in the previous months to correct this. We have been testing Strike privately, and now we need to go wider so we can move faster.
What is AirMech Strike?
AirMech Strike is the new PvP focused reboot of AirMech. Instead of launching a new game like AirMech 2, we are updating the old version so everyone has it, and everyone keeps their account and progress.
If you are just catching up, Carbon is soon launching a Coop/PvE/RPG game called AirMech Wastelands, which will be given to all Silver VIPs free of charge. Anything that is "missing" from AirMech Strike will be in there, along with a ton of new RPG focused content.
Back to Strike--what is it? To some very old players it might be familiar to see a PvP focus, but to newer players from the past year it might seem very different. The Campaign and Warzone have been removed (over to AirMech Wastelands) and we now have a 3D multiplayer lobby, a new Group/Queue system, Custom Games and Browser.
The forced tutorial and restrictions on chat have been removed. New players can try Practice to learn the basics. As of this writing the training mission is incredibly basic, but will be improved over time. It is a guided battle against an easy pilot where we check if the player has done certain actions, and if not we explain how to do these things. A pro player won't see a single message, but a new player should find it a nice soft introduction.
We now have voice chat built into the lobby. You can see other players, with whatever AirMech and Skin they are using. A huge benefit to the new Group system is you will be matched with a partner before finding opponents. This sounds obvious, but the old system located all players separately, and then would start the game, creating the impression of an empty queue. It is easier to get in a game than ever before.
Swapping units during a match is a key new feature. We are still experimenting with restrictions or penalties on this for competitive reasons, but as it takes time to do the swap it already becomes a penalty to change. The bigger benefit is that you don't need to pick units in the lobby, greatly simplifying the lobby/matching process. You choose your units during pregame (Tab or right click on a unit) while in communication with your teammate about strategy. Plus now you know the map you are playing on, making it easier to pick the right units. Don't want to put endgame units in your starting slots? Change them later, so you can use a larger variety of units for more interesting tactics.
Highlights of this Update
New "Follow" Order tells units to follow your AirMech
Auto-repair removed, Repair mode now on Q key
Swap units ingame, Right-click to choose/swap, or Tab and drag
Generators reboot, can heal/fuel mechs on/off Sockets!
Leveler renamed Whopper, increases Upkeep limit
Parts are not used (used in Wastelands instead)
Pilots and Items also not used in Strike
Season 0 started, new Rank Points system
New Lobby design, fully 3D
New Menus, press Esc to toggle in/out
New Ingame HUD
Graphical effects upgrades/improvements (ongoing)
New Storm and Biohazard adapted from player created maps
New Practice mode to battle all classic pilots in order of difficulty
There are many more micro changes to the game that have come along with development over the past year. We were focused on AirMech Command (the VR version) and lots of work from that helped the core AirMech game. We are also not finished, but we feel it is a better game than the previous forced solo campaign mode and confusing UI system, so we are launching it and moving forward with updates. You may be able to switch to the "Legacy" branch on Steam depending on when you are reading this.
Where is my stuff?
I still expect that to be the biggest question. Your account is the same and untouched. Some things might not be visible in the menus and this is intentional if they would cause problems or not be usable. Everything and more will be available in Wastelands, coming very soon. Anyone who has spent any real money (which causes you to become Silver VIP) will be given Wastelands for free. This plan has been discussed with the players on the Carbon forums for many months now, and the result is something that everyone from the biggest VIP to the non-VIPs are satisfied with. Those who love PvP get what they want, and the Coop/PvE/RPG fans will get what they want--in AirMech Wastelands.
We hope you are as excited about this new direction for AirMech as we are!
- Carbon Games Dev Team
Huge AirMech Reboot/Split - Part 3: Two New Games
Parts 1 and 2 layed out how we got here and why we decided to make a huge change to AirMech. This post will talk more about the current split plan which feels good to us but is subject to change based on what happens when the game(s) are released.
Over the years we have swung between wondering if we can figure out how to make F2P work, or if we should do something drastic like un-F2P the game. That second option felt like a death sentance for the game, as it is much more a F2P game than anything else at this point. So we continued on, trying to find a F2P angle that could work, always not quite hitting that sweet spot.
Then it occured to us--why not do both? As AirMech evolved, it continued to pull in two different directions. One was from the PvP crowd, the other from PvE and coop lovers. "More balance" called one side, and "more power" called the other. "Pay to win trash" called the one side "please let us pay for power" called the other. The only solution is to split the game.
Which means literally two games on Steam. Not one game, and DLC under it. Two completely seperate games on Steam, at least from the Steam side of it. Underneath, they share an engine (our own custom engine) and a backend, so you still have just one AirMech account with Carbon and lots of cool benefits due to that.
So follow our train of thought--if we have two games, are they both new? Keep the old classic AirMech around? No, "current" AirMech is a mess, it deserves to become AirMech 2.0, which we call AirMech Strike. Someone who has been away for 3 years, or 3 months, they come back and they are playing the latest and greatest version of the game. So AirMech F2P remains F2P, is renamed AirMech Strike, and launches out of Early Access.
The other game, AirMech Wastelands, takes what was hinted at with the campaign and warzone content, looks at it from the perspective of a paid game, and rebuilds it from top to bottom--and expands it. Parts are to AirMech what swords and armor are to Diablo--you can get them as drops, buy them in shops, or even craft them in some cases. They scale to become incredibly powerful, and you'll need that power. Later game content is overwhelmingly powerful if you aren't fully geared out. These are missions of war, not battling an AI playing by the same rules as you.
Wastelands features a 3D overworld map where you can see the areas yet to explore. You can see your friends and other players moving around the overworld. Special missions appear and can even move around. It is a framework that allows us to easily add more missions and content.
There is a lot to talk about in Wastelands and the rabbit hole went down in rethinking the game. However the core fun is still there--your mech, your units, the tactics of moving things around to getting your hands dirty, it's all there. It's exploded in terms of how much stuff there is in the game and it's only the start.
So if there's so much stuff in Wastelands, what is in Strike? When you launch the game you are in a 3D lobby, your mech in front of you all ready to go. Queue for matchmaking, Browse for a custom game, or create a custom game. Or do practice mode--all 12 original pilots are there with new custom AI behaviors to ramp up their difficulty with each one you defeat. Battle them on any map you want, against any pilot you have already defeated.
There's a brand new queue system. Previously, for PvP it would need to fill the entire game, both sides before you saw anyone. This was bad, as it often gave the impression no one was in queue. Now, it will match your team before it finds opponents. Other players appear beside you, and you can see their mech/skin as they pick it.
What we removed (or moved to Wastelands): pilots, parts, items no longer apply to PvP games. These things all still exist on your account, but they are not useable for PvP balance reasons. They are all becoming more powerful in Wastelands.
Unit picking now has a huge change--you can swap out units ingame for a small time penalty. And instead of picking units in the lobby, you pick them pregame, which has a very positive effect on the game. Now players can focus on just their AirMech choice, not their units and their teammate's units.
Benefits go beyond that: because maps are randomly chosen for matchmaking games, you might not have the right units previously. Now you can choose units after knowing the map. It also encourages more creative unit picks, intead of always having to go with a safe loadout. No longer do you have to feel helpless by having the wrong loadout to deal with an opponent. You also don't have to reserve precious slots for late-game units--just swap them out at that time.
Orders have been given a large rework. "Follow me" is now a core order that can be used from the air or ground and is a huge change strategically. Unit AI has been improved, much thanks to the VR version of the game.
I'll dedicate an update to just Strike soon and talk more about the gameplay nuts and bolts. There's a ton of exciting changes that are a mix between going back to the original PvP focused game's roots and new features to keep gameplay fast paced and allow a wide range of play styles.
AirMech Strike is currently available on the "beta" channel of AirMech for anyone who can't wait. We hope to do some larger scale testing in the coming week. As soon as we feel the beta version of Strike is better than the current live version we will switch it over and let the fun/chaos begin...
For those who have played Strike, is it better than the current live version? Why or why not?
Huge AirMech Reboot/Split - Part 2: State of the Game
This post will talk about the game avalable for the 9 months prior to the split. If the game you are playing is AirMech Strike, then this references an old version.
I had never imagined AirMech as a F2P game way back when it was just an idea and we hadn't started creating it. Take one part Herzog Zwei, add 20 years of game mechanics evolution, toss in a bit of C&C Red Alert and Advance Wars, and a big dose of WH40K miniatures aesthetic and we're done--right?
As I touched on in Part 1, F2P didn't really exist on PC back when we started. I hated F2P on mobile, and felt that there was probably some formula we could tap into that would work well for an indie dev of our size. After all, we knew we could make a game, so even Kickstarter seemed like a strange approch--why not just put the game in player's hands and let them support us if they like what they see?
While we knew nothing about F2P when we started, we quickly learned. Having 5% of your players pay something was normal it turns out--and even part of the "game" can be not paying. This doesn't mean the players are being unsupportive or anything, but it's a tricky chicken and egg thing.
We struggled for years trying to balance the line between rewarding the paying players with lots of excellent bonuses and keeping the game fair for free players. It was a problem I didn't expect--we wanted all players who gave even a small amount to be rewarded handsomely, so we started the VIP system. Make a purchase, become Silver VIP for life, simple. XP, currency bonuses, exclusive cosmetics, we experimented with lots of things but the better we made VIP (even if it was cheap) the more we got called "pay to win". This was very frustrating to say the least.
It seemed no matter what changes we made, or how many features we added to the game, revenue seemed incredibly consistent. Retention was never great, but steady. The playerbase wouldn't grow much--or shrink. It was strange. We always thought "this is the feature players have been asking for, this will make the game take off". But it might be we were building the game for the already dedicated players, which did make the game better, but did nothing to bring in new players or help them early on. And again, most of these features benefited the paying users, furthering the divide.
Around 2 years ago, we were experimenting in VR. This got us a lot of attention, and Oculus in particular was very interested in us doing a full game in the AirMech universe for them. We were very interested in VR, but saw designing the game for motion controllers to be too much at the time. With Rift launching with a gamepad it was perfect--we knew we could add motion controller support later on.
We focused the core team on AirMech Command (the VR version) but also wanted to improve F2P AirMech. So we brought in some outside help from someone who worked in F2P games. He had some quite different ideas on what types of content to give players for what to play (Warzone, Tutorial Campaign) and a plan for how to make it. It was hard for me to give up creative control of AirMech as it was my baby, but for financial and business reasons I felt it was the right decision. After all, after many attempts I was never able to launch AirMech into a huge success, so letting someone new take a shot seemed sensible.
I take full responsibility for what AirMech would become. While it was not my plan, I did approve of it, because it was at least something "different". I don't think the result is a game that I would play, but Carbon was in the position where we were very focused on VR and not able to spend time to "fix" the game. VR, even with its tiny userbase, was already generating more revenue than the F2P game, so we relucantly had to keep almost all of the team focused on our VR project(s).
With the release of AirMech Command on Steam this spring, it freed up the team to come back to AirMech properly. I am again leading development, and having come back from a long break I can see a giant amount of "stuff" we have in this game--but it's spread all over into a mess.
At the root is a conflict between PvP and PvE style play. One wants to be fair and competitive, the other wants progression and a variety of challenges. We have always had battles between the two groups of players over this, resulting in neither group being satisfied. I remind myself that even Blizzard gave up on PvP for Diablo 3 probably due to this very reason.
The solution is that AirMech should really be two games: a PvP focused one, and an RPG/PvE focused one. Instead of two new games however, the current version of AirMech will be relaunched as AirMech Strike--think of it as AirMech 2.0. It will remain F2P, and be entirely PvP focused. You'll still be able to do coop practice against AI and custom games, but all the campaign and coop special missions are being moved too...
A brand new AirMech game: AirMech Wastelands. I'll need a whole post to go into detail about that because there are many radical changes from rebooting AirMech into a semi-open world game with RPG-style power and progression curves.
It's important to note that any player who is Silver VIP before the split will be gifted AirMech Wastelands on Steam. Originally it was meant for just owners of Prime to get the story/campaign, but we want to bring over anyone who has supported us financially on any level in the past. There will be benefits over and above for Prime owners, don't worry.
Once again, I apologize for the current state of the game. It pains me to see it this way, and you can see for yourself on the recent Steam reviews that the players feel the same way. I am very excited to be close to releasing Strike, and shortly after that we will leave Early Access. Wastelands is coming soon after as a new Steam game, not as AirMech Strike DLC.
Worth noting is that the accounts for Strike and Wastelands will be linked. There will be some content only available in one game or the other, in some really interesting ways. Longtime players will find themselves quite happy with the benefits of what they have collected ahead of this split.
Keep an eye out for the next update where I detail out what will be in Strike and what will be in Wastelands.
Huge AirMech Reboot/Split - Part 1: Backstory
Where to begin? This has been a long time coming indeed. As one of the very first Early Access titles, AirMech probably holds some records on Steam for that. This series of posts is about much more than exiting Early Access however. I wanted to lay everything out for the players to understand the road we took to get here, what we have been working on the past half year, and where we are going next. I plan to make a few posts here to cover the different areas since there is a lot to talk about. It will probably go like this:
Part 1: Backstory - general history of AirMech and Carbon
Part 2: The Split - overview of how AirMech is expanding on Steam
Part 3: AirMech Strike - more detail on the PvP focused AirMech
Part 4: AirMech Wastelands - more detail on the RPG/PvE AirMech
Carbon Games is almost 6 years old now. We started the company with the goal to create AirMech, a spiritual successor of sorts to a game I loved in my youth, Herzog Zwei. There was some magic to that game that I wanted to bring to a larger number of gamers who probably never even knew about it.
Looking back now, I can't believe we started our own company--I'm not sure I would do it again! We survived through a combination of luck and skill, probably more luck than anything. And by luck I mean spotting smart opportunities to let us continue to move AirMech forward while keeping control of the core game.
We started AirMech when F2P was in its infancy. To me, it wasn't actually F2P at the time, it was built around Microsoft's Xbox Live original model where all games were required to have demos, and at the end of the demo you had the option to buy the game and keep your progress.
We also wanted to make the game free while we were in beta, as that's what I always thought a beta was--you're asking players to test your game, so charging them to play it before release seemed crazy to me. Steam didn't have a way to do this however--but Early Access appeared just as we wanted to release our first test versions, so it seemed like a perfect fit.
Fast forward to now, and both Free to Play and Early Access have become something different than what we believed in. Since we are F2P, we don't require payment to try the game out, and I really like being able to offer that. It means that someone who paid probably has a lot of hours invested and is very likely to be a satisfied customer--more than an average EA game I hope.
The Elephant in the Room: why no updates to AirMech since last September? After more than 200 updates to AirMech (sometimes multiple times a week) we stopped. We didn't want to, but we had some other things taking our attention: the VR version of AirMech, named AirMech Command. Released both on SteamVR and Oculus, this was a huge technical and design challenge that we enjoyed very much. It took all of our time to focus on it.
We were surprised by two things: one was how small the VR market is, the other was that the VR games generated more revenue than the F2P AirMech. We again wondered if we were handicapping AirMech by labeling it as F2P, since we are not a typical F2P game. So the idea we have been bouncing around internally for a long time came up again:
AirMech can become two games, one F2P, and one paid.
We have been talking about this with our most devoted fans for over 6 months now, running through what would happen, questions, answers, and together we came up with a great plan where everyone sounds happy. In Part 2, I'll talk more about what the split means, how we'll look after all of the existing players, and all the new things that are coming to AirMech as a result. If you have questions about the split, please hold off until Part 2 is posted and read that first.
Questions about the history of AirMech and Carbon? I skipped over things like AirMech on Chrome, AirMech Arena on console, and what it was like being on the frontline of VR using a custom engine instead of Untiy/Unreal. I'll answer any questions I can below.
Double XP Weekend!
Looking to level up your Warthog and equip that Advanced Minigun upgrade? Need a couple more levels to finally hit the next name color? Just a few more stats to max out on your pilot? ːairmechː
We've got you covered all weekend with Double XP from all matches! ːmechyː
Follow-Up to the Warzone Update
Greetings, pilots! WarZone 1.1 is here, and deadlier than ever! We've rounded off a few corners a sharpened a few others to bring you the best weekly war in the wasteland.
-New 5 Star Map completion and Universal Difficulty: Keep a sharp eye on your current difficulty, or step it up a notch with these new features. Select difficulty right in your WarZone tac display, see it during matches, and now map completion stars correspond to the 5 difficulty levels you know so well!
-Difficulty Amnesty for all: No matter your level, select ANY difficulty in any map! Yep, no more leveling your smurf to get creamed on Highway to Hell!
-Ruthless is no longer Toothless: You asked for a challenge, well here it is. Insane damage and HP scalers for THE IRON HAND at maximum difficulty, and a huge score multiplier to make it worth the pain.
-IRON 1 is in the fight: Play against the notorious IRON 1 in the toughest AI Versus battles!
-Login screen field repair: Our killer new Login screen is streamlined and GTG, so no more cooking hot pockets during login!
-IRON HAND and SATCOMM chat badges! Win any WarZone map for a slim chance at a cool new chat badge to show your allegiance in the rising tide of war. Will you side with the tyrannical hordes, or stand firm for Earth unified in peace?
-Map Tweaks: The Great Wall now has a split Goliath wave, so no more ez mode turtling! The Keep is now AirMech sudden death, so stop dying and get a healer! Also, Highway to Hell has an improved unit spacer to make the infamous 5th wave a little more reasonable, no no easier! Get to it!
General Updates:
added Iron 1 to Ruthless AI
added Patchnotes and other Field Guide menus to the patching screen
some changes to various Warzone maps
new SATCOMM and IRON HAND badges
added difficulty selection to the Warzone menu
tweaked enemy unit stats and rewards for Warzone per difficulty
removed Automatic difficulty selection
tweaks for scoring in Warzone
Bug Fixes:
fixed issues with low framerate on login menu
fixed map publishing for AirMech Prime Booster owners and added additional error messages for any future issues
fixed exiting to lobby after spectating, map editing, or playing a tutorial map
fix for exiting a lobby via the gear icon
fix for infantry falling through the terrain when entering the Southern outpost on The Keep
fixed some transforming issues on Dogs of War
fixed some floating assets on some Warzone maps
fix for names being cut off on Leaderboards
fix for Rocketeer animation when occupying an outpost
fixed Fourth of July set not being searchable
Balance Changes:
Void units are much stronger!
Update #230 - Warzone!
This is an important time of the year for Carbon. July 4th is not only Independence Day in the US, but also Carbon's 5th birthday! We've packed this update full of new content to celebrate. New bundles will also be on sale! Check out the contents of each one, as there are some previously unreleased goodies to be found. These new bundles won't be around for long and can only be purchased once. Don't miss out!
Seven new maps have made their way into the queue, but you'll only find one available at first. Each day of the week will bring a different Warzone into play. Those who have proven their skills on these new maps might find a special item that allows them to play that map at any time. These treasures can only be obtained on the battlefield. New technologies have been discovered at these locations. Use them to greatly increase your mechs power and overcome the Iron Hand's forces.
There are a few balance updates to discuss here as well. Buster seems to have fallen out of players' loadouts since its range was reduced, so range is being bumped up a bit. To compensate, it's also losing 5 armor. Increasing Jackal's upkeep to 2 did work out as intended, but it wasn't a very popular change among PvP players. We're going to experiment a bit more and try out a cost increase instead. A couple of patches earlier, there were a lot of changes to carry stats. This hit Osprey and Helix the hardest, as carry speed, capacity, and the Lifter ability were all nerfed at once. At the same time, both of these mechs have very powerful primary abilities that are often the target of complaints. Missile damage and repair rate will be going down, and carry capacity will be restored to 2540 each. Be sure to post balance feedback on the forums. The Balance Council is always looking for more opinions!
Uber PowerUps found on Warzone maps greatly increase the strength of your primary ability
added weekly Leaderboards for new Warzone maps
added leaderboard notifications at endgame
added a slight delay before victory is shown at endgame
Bug Fixes:
fix for Baloom not triggering an explosion when passing over an enemy mech
fixed alignment with Twin Peaks' minimap viewbox
fixed missing Compliance stat in the Field Guide
fixed Blueprints link (was renamed from Skills)
fix for clicking the timed quest notification outside of the Home tab
fixed some collision issues and floating assets on Challenge maps
fix for enemy wave spawns on Challenge 10
Balance Changes:
Buster attack range increased from 18 to 19
Buster armor decreased from 60 to 55
Jackal upkeep decreased from 2 to 1
Jackal build cost increased from 2500 to 3000
Helix missile damage decreased from 60 to 50
Helix carry capacity increased from 2380 to 2540
Osprey heal beam repair rate decreased by 20%
Osprey carry capacity increased from 2380 to 2540
Update #230 - Warzone!
This is an important time of the year for Carbon. July 4th is not only Independence Day in the US, but also Carbon's 5th birthday! We've packed this update full of new content to celebrate. New bundles will also be on sale! Check out the contents of each one, as there are some previously unreleased goodies to be found. These new bundles won't be around for long and can only be purchased once. Don't miss out!
Seven new maps have made their way into the queue, but you'll only find one available at first. Each day of the week will bring a different Warzone into play. Those who have proven their skills on these new maps might find a special item that allows them to play that map at any time. These treasures can only be obtained on the battlefield. New technologies have been discovered at these locations. Use them to greatly increase your mechs power and overcome the Iron Hand's forces.
There are a few balance updates to discuss here as well. Buster seems to have fallen out of players' loadouts since its range was reduced, so range is being bumped up a bit. To compensate, it's also losing 5 armor. Increasing Jackal's upkeep to 2 did work out as intended, but it wasn't a very popular change among PvP players. We're going to experiment a bit more and try out a cost increase instead. A couple of patches earlier, there were a lot of changes to carry stats. This hit Osprey and Helix the hardest, as carry speed, capacity, and the Lifter ability were all nerfed at once. At the same time, both of these mechs have very powerful primary abilities that are often the target of complaints. Missile damage and repair rate will be going down, and carry capacity will be restored to 2540 each. Be sure to post balance feedback on the forums. The Balance Council is always looking for more opinions!
Uber PowerUps found on Warzone maps greatly increase the strength of your primary ability
added weekly Leaderboards for new Warzone maps
added leaderboard notifications at endgame
added a slight delay before victory is shown at endgame
Bug Fixes:
fix for Baloom not triggering an explosion when passing over an enemy mech
fixed alignment with Twin Peaks' minimap viewbox
fixed missing Compliance stat in the Field Guide
fixed Blueprints link (was renamed from Skills)
fix for clicking the timed quest notification outside of the Home tab
fixed some collision issues and floating assets on Challenge maps
fix for enemy wave spawns on Challenge 10
Balance Changes:
Buster attack range increased from 18 to 19
Buster armor decreased from 60 to 55
Jackal upkeep decreased from 2 to 1
Jackal build cost increased from 2500 to 3000
Helix missile damage decreased from 60 to 50
Helix carry capacity increased from 2380 to 2540
Osprey heal beam repair rate decreased by 20%
Osprey carry capacity increased from 2380 to 2540
Update #229 - Optional Deploy Arm
We've got another big update for you this week. A huge batch of new content is on the way, so we need to get some of these changes out there for testing before the big reveal next month. A good portion of this patch will also be aimed at improving the new player experience.
We've renamed many of our game modes this patch. Skirmish is now Versus, while Survival mode will now be known as Warzone. Feedback on the forums generally agreed that Ranked and Unranked were misleading names, so we've renamed those to Skills and Unlimited respectively. The descriptions for all of these queues have been updated as well.
Your feedback on the forums is always important to us, even when we don't respond right away. Since so many of you have asked for it, we've added a setting in General -> Gameplay for "Deploy Arm Enabled". This will be on by default, since it's intended for advanced users rather than new players. You can change this setting at any time, even during a multiplayer match. Turning the deploy arm off will prevent your units from being automatically deployed. They'll be stored in the structure they were built at and can be picked up by AirMechs above the structure. This brings back a popular strategy of hiding units in queue, but it can be countered by neutralizing the outpost they're queued at.
ːairmechː General Updates:
added an option to disable the deploy arm and manually pick up units from structures
renamed some game modes and updated Play menu with new tooltips
added Iron Hand dialog to existing Warzone maps
added difficulty settings with reward modifiers to Warzone
added title system for Leaderboard champions
improved Heal Nova animation for Osprey
default to Weekly instead of Factions when opening the Leaderboards UI
moved the Quests button to the bottom of the main menu
renamed Skills tab to Blueprints
renamed Promos button to News
tweaks to the endgame victory medal
added some variation to Striker sword audio
set a limit for credit cap messages to reduce spam
added pilot icons for in-game messages
added icons for trials in the pregame lobby
ːairmechː Bug Fixes:
fixes for AirMech animation bugs
fix for the Link command on units with a deploy animation delay
fix for melee units not attacking enemy fortress when no capture targets are available
fixed a bug with flier separation not applying to neutral units
fix for shadow rendering when zooming in
fixed some issues with shadow rendering on oversized props
fixed a bug that allowed the AI to build Void units
fix for showing Quests button when not on the main menu
fixed an issue where an abducted Bot Spawner would produce a creep while on an enemy socket
fixed item icons not showing on Market purchase dialog
fix for automatically terminating units in Warzone
fixed alignment of promos when launched from the News button
fixed picking up CTF cores over the fortress
fixed an issue with pickup indicator not displaying for CTF cores
ːairmechː Map Editor Updates/Fixes:
maps will now save automatically in the event of a disconnect, use recoverLast to reload
added radio buttons for Edging, Elevation, and Paint Mat buttons
rearranged the terrain panel
add credit value for Safebox and Vaultbox when pre-placed
fixed broken Combos menu
fix for Roller not unlatching when spawned from an elevator
fixed an issue where editing the position field would not correctly move a game location
fix for skybox selection overwriting pregame timer
fix for game messages being displayed while editing
fix for neutral Necro reviving units
fix for scripted game messages not appearing in player-made maps
ːairmechː Balance Changes:
Seeker HP decreased from 1250 to 950
Striker guns piercing increased from 55 to 60
Update #228 - Editor Updates and PvE Work
It's been awhile since our last update. A lot of changes have been made that focus on PvE and story content. Most of that work is not yet ready for release, but you'll still notice some small things here and there. New promos, dialogs, and in-game messages may hint at some of the things to come. Neutral units have been claimed by an unknown force, but they haven't revealed themselves just yet.
Since we're working on new maps focused on PvE, we needed to make some more improvements to the Map Editor to support some more advanced scripting. Many new conditions and actions were added, and we can't wait to see what kind of custom maps you'll build with them. We're also going to enable scripts to run on any game mode, so you don't have to set the map to Custom. Some features requested on the forums have made their way into the Editor, such as a facing/rotation property for spawned units, box select will now filter its selection with an option to select everything by holding Shift, confirm dialogs for New and Publish options, and new UI for publishing maps. Give it a try and let us know if you run into any issues or have suggestions for Map Editor features.
General Updates:
- new recurring PvP Quests in the Daily section
- new textures for some neutral units
- improvements to in-game status messages
- improved collision data for tall Canyon tiles
- increased rewards for Last Stand
- increased Upkeep from Survival structures in multiplayer matches
- added a new victory dialog at the end of a match
- the suggested content dialog will only show on defeat
Map Editor Updates/Fixes:
- added a Confirm dialog for New and Publish options
- updated prop icons
- the box select tool will filter selections again, hold Shift to select everything
- map scripts will now run on all game modes
- added a dialog for publishing maps
- making custom maps respect capitalization in the load map window and for uploaded maps
- added support for placing PowerUps and prop Combos
- added support for importing scripts from another locally saved map
- added support for specifying the maximum flying height of the Sample Map
- added a script event for AirMechs entering a location
- added a script condition to compare the current energy of an AirMech
- added a script condition to compare the current health of an AirMech
- added a script command to initiating an event for each unit in a location
- added a script command for disabling energy regen
- added a script command for disabling health regen
- added a script command for respawning an AirMech
- added support for event and variable parameters in the move location to unit script
- added a facing/rotation property to the unit spawn script command
- Bombs no longer require NavMesh to be spawned from scripting
- fixed the script conditions for unit type and team
- fixed the location option not saving in the AirMech condition
- fixed the script condition for units remaining
- fixed the script condition for AirMech evaluation
- fix for units getting stuck when spawned from elevators
- fixed some issues with editing the team option in scripting
- fixed an issue with player locations not being saved
Bug Fixes:
- fix for displayed ping values showing incorrectly
- fix for Sonya and Dinger radar spinning animations
- fix for Boomer capturing outposts
- fixed a bug that could cause players to be stuck in the Basecamp tutorial
- fixed a crash that could occur when loading a map
- fixed an audio related crash
- fixed tooltips for NoColor and gold plated items
- fixed a bug that caused the suggested content dialog to be misaligned
- fixed a bug with Gundanium Alloy appearing unlocalized
- fix for some artillery units appearing un-deployed
