With the coming of 0.6.0, we thought it's best to change our normal routine of providing changelogs a week in advance to writing up a preview of the coming game balance changes and giving our reasonings for them first. This is due to the changes that can still be made in the last week before patch deployment and changelogs one week prior to it might not be implemented if a problem arises during bug testing. We don't want players to read a changelog once, then proceed to play in the update without realizing that we've changed the changelog (pun not intended) and not having the experience they expected. Just QUICK REMINDER, this does not mean that we're deploying the update next week yet, it's coming when it's ready, but soon.
So, without further ado, here are the game balance previews:
Enemies (Quarks) Quarks are one of the most important aspects of the game, being the main enemy type presented to players. We've been trying to improve the AI and behaviors of Quarks in every update, trying out different approaches to make them feel more threatening, and this time, we'll be making them attack a lot more as requested by many of our "Very Hard" players. Bosses have also been adjusted and given new attacks, and many of them will have "Very Hard only" attacks to spice up the difficulty differences now.
Credits There has been a topic of "grind" that we'd like to address. While we would like everyone to have fun playing the game and getting credits as a by-product to develop their M.A.S.S. technology, the amount received was not enough to progress smoothly through to tier 5 and players have mentioned the requirement of grinding to achieve tier 5's. This was not something intentional and while we do want everyone to have some sort of progression from being able to unlock each node, a tedious grind is not something we desired. In 0.6.0, we'll be increasing the multipliers for credits received after missions, especially from bosses, and the new challenge maps will have special credits multipliers with them.
Nodes 0.5.0. was a very experimental patch for the game, introducing a lot of nodes that drastically change the playstyle of a player. We have been observing your discussions, most likely in our Discord as well as the feedback hub, and have been secretly taking notes on how you think about them. With that said, we're replacing a lot of development nodes, breaking the tier 5 game changers into two nodes instead due to how strong they are (and with your mentioning of the fun aspect you had when getting to use nodes like FMJ or Composite Nanorobotics). These new nodes will mostly be available much earlier in the game and new players will get to use them, solidifying their playstyle much faster than before, and we're also working to promote playstyles that don't use these nodes as well. Read more below.
Melee Playstyle We would like melee to feel better and the last update had shown us that survivability is a thing many people wanted more of. However, putting everything into a node like Composite Nanorobotics had made other methods quite a trivial option to pick over. We're improving 1H + Shields through various shields nodes such as Saintess Bulwark rhythmic playstyle of guard and slash, speed nodes that provide a fraction time of extreme defense, and baseline lower time before shields recovery kicks in. Stacking different levels of OS (for things like shield regen) is also something we'd like you to try.
Shooters (and Bullet Launchers) A lot of number tweaks have been made to balance them as a whole, but we'd like to say that Detonators, regarded by you as the strongest shooter as of the moment, been nerfed by around 5% in the damage department but their ammo count took around 35% hit if you don't spec into Magazine Load. We don't want to ruin your fun seeing BIG explosion numbers and we hope that the other buffed-up weapons can be a contender to them in this update.
Weight Weight is a very controversial stat in the game at its current state. We were first dedicated to not having it affect the game but received lots of complaints on the realism of the matter and have decided to put in its effect in every place as a balance of Acceleration and Armor. As the game grew and more nodes and spaces are unlocked, complaints from the other side were received as it is seen as a detrimental status, even with the versatility it provides against raw damage. We wanted players to have utility choices when carrying large amounts of weapons, with differing ranges, properties, usages, and a lot of things with speed as a sacrifice. However, it isn't prominent enough and has shown that the changes proposed during the early stages of development have not brought good towards weapons tuning, thus we decided to remove weight effects from the weapon as a whole while still retaining its effects on armor pieces. On that note, due to the total increment in speed itself after testing, we will also be removing a lot of acceleration status on various nodes to balance this change, while nodes that are focused on speed will be the same.
Property damages Property damages were always either "everyone we can burn everything down in seconds while freezing the world" or "it's a small flame that can't even heat up my hands and this is just a splash of water." In 0.6.0 we are revamping almost every property damage node in the development tree to help customize them to their playstyles. There will be less generic percentage increment nodes and more specific swing nodes (higher burn damage while lowering duration, shock and weak more effective, etc.) while also making "advantage property" stronger. Alongside weight changes, this should allow players to bring in an arsenal that could deal with any defense if they are willing to use their weapon slots and concentration to weapon swap to compensate for each type of enemy.
WIP: 0.6.0 Upcoming Shield Parts
This week's WIP update is a small one while we're working to bring 0.6.0 to life for everyone as soon as possible. These new Shield parts are for the upcoming 0.6.0 update, and they should be arriving soon.
#Discord: discord.gg/quS7E46
WIP: Breach Challenge Mode
For this week's #massbuildergame #screenshotsaturday we'd like to show you a continuation of the Breach Challenge, where you'll battle Quarks on a confined space, holding the area as long as possible while a large Quark is going ham at your shields.
Discord: http://discord.gg/quS7E46
IMPORTANT - When's 0.6.0 coming?:
So, we'd like to discuss something important that we think you all would like to know, what's happening to update 0.6.0 that should be out by now? To answer that, we would like to say that the quality of our work, especially challenge modes have not met our satisfaction after extensive playtesting. In the first place, we wanted challenges to be a GREAT experience where players can have fun with, exploring how to go beyond and surpassing each other, but it only scored ALRIGHT during playtesting.
It's not good enough, it became repetitive, it is not something you'd spend 15 minutes playing, then a few more minutes tuning, no, it was only a gimmicky game mode at best to play while waiting for the next and next updates. That did not sit well with us at all, so we added a few mechanics here and there, made changes that premiered in this mode that we can also apply to other modes of play (you'll be able to read them soon enough in patch notes).
That took a few weeks more complete and then tuning for each challenge began. We needed to make them feel different. Of course, there are modules that we can use alongside each other, but there are also specific ones for each challenge itself, so all in all the works piled up and time was spent honing everything to make them feel as good as possible internally. We hope this explains our timing and trust us when we say we wanted the update to finish ASAP. For now, you'll have to wait and we'll have to work and fine-tune everything until it's ready to be presented. Hopefully, it'll be ready soon, we'll keep you up to date every week as always!
WIP: Range Weapon New Stance Animation
Another #screenshotsaturday for the upcoming #massbuildergame 0.6.0 update. A roundup on ranged weapons' stances and animations and will be improving each of them to be on par with close combat weapon stances. We hope to be able to deliver the update soon!
Discord: http://discord.gg/quS7E46
WIP: UI Improvements Preview
Hello everyone! We're back with another weekly update for you all, this time featuring some of the promised UI improvements. In the coming 0.6.0 update, we've improved the mission select UI that was deemed quite difficult to navigate and recognize by separating them into three types, campaign which you will find the main story missions for the game, Hunt where you'll be hunting down Quarks in an open area, and Challenge where missions with special rules are imposed on the player.
We've also added the much-requested "options" menu to the hangar menu of the game for an easier configurations experience as well as improved the effects and other aspects of the menu and its viewing experience. Below is a larger and slower image.
#Discord: http://discord.gg/quS7E46
WIP: Boss Rush Challenge Mode Preview
Hello everyone! Today will be a short preview of the upcoming Boss Rush. Remember how we mentioned two bosses at the same time? We're making it reality! They're also getting new attacks to make it a challenge! It's only a few weeks now before the 0.6.0 update, stay tune!
#Discord: http://discord.gg/quS7E46
WIP: Sneak Peek Breach Challenge Map
Hello everyone, as we're approaching the next update, we'd like to show you more progress on another challenge mission: Breach. In this mission, you'll be battling against hordes of enemies in the night, trying your best to not let them overwhelm you with numbers. As long as the limit is not reached, the mission will continue to get more difficult.
We hope to see you struggle and triumph through this challenge!
Discord: http://discord.gg/quS7E46
WIP: Thruster effects improvement
Hello everyone and happy new year once more! Here is the first WIP update of the year, an improvement on thruster effects. To those asking when's the update, we hope to deliver it soon!
The photography mode will also have a burst effect for you to capture here!
Discord: http://discord.gg/quS7E46
WIP: Panzer Armor Full Preview
Merry X'Mas and a Happy New Year to everyone! We hope the coming 2021 won't be too harsh upon every one of you (and us) so best prepare for what's coming! On that note, here's a gift from us on this holy night! A look at the completed standard Panzer set!
We also heard that many of you liked to pause and analyze each frame of the preview so here's a full image of the front and back...
Now that we've finally finished the base one, there are two more to finish as variants for the set. The Panzer will be the first set that holds all three types from slimmer ones to a thicker ones so we hope that everyone can find a liking to it! With that said, here's a peek and the "slimmer" leg piece that we mentioned.
Soon enough, it'll be time for the 0.6.0 update with all the new challenges, armor parts, balances, quality of life changes, improvements, and many more things coming out! Well then, good luck, stay safe, and hope you all have a good time in 2021!
Discord: http://discord.gg/quS7E46
WIP: Survival Battlegrounds Preview
Another week has passed and we're reaching the end of the year soon. Here's a preview of one of the challenges coming in 0.6.0! A stage set for survival against waves of enemies, but we'll be spicing it up with some mayhem of a boss, raining down bombardment against you and your A.I. allies in this struggle!
