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M.A.S.S. Builder screenshot
PC Steam
Genre: Role-playing (RPG), Strategy, Indie

M.A.S.S. Builder

WIP: 0.9.0 Patch Notes and Balance Updates Roundup
Hello everyone! We're excited to announce that we're extremely near the update of version 0.9.0 and there's only a few things left to be polished before it's ready. So before everything happens, we'd like to round up everything that is going to change in the new version as well as provide all the balance changes coming in the new version so you can think ahead.

Specific date and time of the update will be announced later, stay tuned!

Additions


Weak Point System
To add more depth into boss fights of M.A.S.S. Builder, we've added certain "Weak Points" to every boss enemy into the game. Weak points are special places located on a boss' body that has a higher damage multiplier. Each boss will have different weak points, but they all are noticeable at a glance, and should allow players to have a good "burst" moment instead of just simply reducing a boss' HP to 0 at a constant rate. Now before anyone mentions how difficult it will be for melee players to hit these weak points in comparison to ranged players, we would like to tell you about the following.
You can read more about it in: https://steamcommunity.com/games/956680/announcements/detail/3398556047602781789

Tier 6 nodes
Tier 6 nodes are now unlocked. Players will be able to obtain the materials required for their research from challenge mode missions only.

New Base Weapon Parts
In 0.9.0. simple parts or "base" parts of every ranged weapon type (Bullet Shooter, Energy Shooter, Bullet Launcher, Energy Launcher) will be making its way into the game. Every firing method will be receiving a set of similar looking parts so players can feel free to choose which base part they wanted to accessorize and which firing method they'll use.
https://steamcommunity.com/games/956680/announcements/detail/3400806564133453599

New Accessories
We've added around 30 new accessory parts themed around Quarks, Rings, Base weapons, and many more into the game. Have a good time using them to further customize your M.A.S.S. unit! We'll keep an eye on more of your requests and if we have the time to work on them, we'll select some and add them into the game in the next update!
https://steamcommunity.com/games/956680/announcements/detail/3389539321921025744
https://steamcommunity.com/games/956680/announcements/detail/3378282226098745216

New Missions
We've added 2 new story missions bringing it to 17 out of the planned 26 now. Plans might change and we might end up with more story missions, but this is the current plan. We've also added 1 new HUNT mission into the game.
https://steamcommunity.com/games/956680/announcements/detail/3409814398501901581

New Poses in Photograph Mode
There are a few new poses in Photograph Mode for players to enjoy their creations.
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/956680/view/3192499877882836524

Co-op MULTIPLAYER is here!
After grueling months of wait, we've finally added multiplayer into M.A.S.S. Builder in the form of Co-op missions! This is the first phase of many, and we admit that it's more than rough around the edges, but we'd like you to test it out among your friends (or enemies). Accompanying co-op will be 3 missions with the difficulty of around tier 5 nodes based on normal missions and challenge missions. These missions won't have much requirement of players yet and extremely simple as an alpha test mission.

We hope to add more in the future, but we'd like these 3 to be the first experience of you players. We would appreciate if you can provide feedback on these missions to us so we can improve them in the future as well as create new ones with more fun and mechanics (that would truly require you to bring at least one more player alongside to complete the requirements.)
https://steamcommunity.com/games/956680/announcements/detail/5379014706379584819

Improvements



  • There are now explanations for each form of Quantum Break in the HELP menu.
  • Improved boosting mechanics. Players will now experience a large speed boost after continually boosting for a few seconds to help travel between areas in larger missions.
  • Created a curve that made combo attacks hit faster and faster if you continue the combo. Players who spec into more armor and able to withstand attacks from enemies will be dishing out more damage through this system. Due to a critical bug found in the final phases of development, we've decided to not implement the speed ramping for combo attacks in version 0.9.0. It should be done in version 0.10.0 instead. We are sorry to disappoint all melee players, but we've adjusted base attack damage to compensate for the speed loss.
  • Further optimized the game's graphics and CPU usage, especially with Clusters bullet launcher.
  • Camera adjustments when you're around large enemies, zooming out a bit to show the extravaganza of combat.
  • Added unique effects for existing techs that adds extra damage to anything.
  • Changed various tech node icons to better match their abilities.
  • You can now sort through the tuning nodes alphabetically.
  • You can now skip the unlock animation when unlocking new nodes or new blueprints.

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/956680/view/3352387161691149819

0.9.0 Balance update
Problem: While close combat feels much better and regarded by most as a great playstyle, its performance was still lower than we wanted. Boss enemies does not provide enough time for players to freely attack them for a full combo or two. Melee players felt they need to use certain methods to be effective in playing, such as dash attacks spamming. Quantum Break still feels slightly off. Defensive nodes still overlooked.

Solution: Adjust their attack patterns and vulnerable windows. Raise melee damage and speed in total, even higher in later combos to compensate for their downtime (as mentioned before in gameplay speed adjustments). This has not been implemented into the game as of version 0.9.0. Only the damage and normal speed increment were applied but not combo ramping. Write more codes to allow the modification of shield recharge and quantum break activation time through nodes.

Bosses Changes

  • Bosses will have a longer wind-up time before some attacks, such as the first boss' ground stomp, the multi-headed runner boss jump attack.
  • Bosses will now "fall" for a longer period of time to create a window for combo attacks to chain until the end. These windows of attack should also benefit slow firing weapons such as detonator and single shot weapons more.
  • Bosses will recover their stamina from melee attacks less.


Dash Attacks

  • Reduced dash attacks' damage multiplier by around 20%. We must first explain that every attack has its own damage multiplier which might be 100%, 110%, 120%, or 90%. This change meant that Dash Attacks has 20% less than before and less than normal attacks, not that it usually is stronger than normal attacks and we're lowering it.
  • Dash attacks now has a cooldown of 0.4 seconds. Normal players won't feel any difference, but dash attack spammers and macro users will not be able to utilize it to the same power as before. While changing this might not seem enough to deter players from using it, please know that we don't want that kind of playstyle to die out completely as we wanted everyone to play however, they wanted and still have it as a possible playstyle.


Others

  • Certain defense nodes now have a passive increment to armor in addition to triggered defense increase.
  • There are now nodes that allow faster shield recharges and quantum break activation. We just had some time to code them in so now there's more choice of nodes to help with your playstyle.
  • We have currently disabled most special melee "opener" attacks (rise, leap, etc.). This may cause some problems and we'll return with it later when we find a good solution to how it will work in tandem with normal attacks.


Problem: Quantum Break doesn't synergize well with "end combo" tech nodes. It also causes some frustration and exploits to occur in the way of time plus attacks both burning away Quantum Break duration and Quantum Break still doesn't feel like "power overwhelming" but just a sustained power up.
Solution: Change how Quantum Break duration works with time and attack. Make Quantum Break hits count as "end combo."

  • Every 5th hit counts as "end combo" triggering all "end combo" effects.
  • Increased the power provided by entering into Quantum Break.
  • Increased Quantum Break max capacity and consumption per second, this means attacks in Quantum Break will use much less Quantum charge, but now depletes over time in around 8 seconds.
  • With the above change, Enhanced mode will have around 50% more duration than other modes, but less effective.
  • Lowered the baseline number of attacks required to enter Quantum Break. This means that even with no investment, players will be able to use Quantum Break around 20% much faster.
  • Added nodes that immediately starts and end Quantum Break with extremely strong effects. This turns QB into an "oh shit" button for players that wishes to utilize them a certain way. Read below on the specific node changes to learn more.
https://steamcommunity.com/games/956680/announcements/detail/3358010319615690560

Problem: Property Damages have either been too strong or too weak to be useful. In some cases, players want to thematically use one property for their units, but advantages/disadvantages prevent them from doing so.

Solution: Totally remove the min-maxing element out of property and make each element as similar in power (still with their characteristics of BURN/FREEZE/WEAK) as well as only slightly stronger that RAW when their special properties proc. Raise the power of specific property damage nodes.

  • Every enemy now has almost the same property damage resistance with every property damage. Property weaknesses will only result in around 10% more damage when correct element is used now.
  • Architecture and tech nodes now make property damage much more effective than before. Players who don't invest in property damage will now have around 30% less damage when using weapons with property damage in comparison to raw damage while those investing an architecture node will make this number back to 0% less damage. This should allow players to specifically use Architectures and Tech nodes to counter the lowered damage and perform as well as other methods of play through property debuffs.
  • BURN now lasts 3 seconds at baseline and now deals 50% of the proc damage per second.
  • WEAK now lasts 3 seconds at baseline and now reduce 75% of enemy's defense.
  • No changes on FREEZE.
  • M.A.S.S. type enemies are not affected by any status effects, but their property damage resistance is now lower than Quarks
https://steamcommunity.com/games/956680/announcements/detail/3108052931132220440

Specific Node Changes
Problem: In the engine and OS tree, nodes in the same line provides an almost identical playstyle, just to the more extremities. This disabled players from tuning a unit that suits their desired playstyle (such as a balance of Power + Acceleration in engine tree).

Solution: Adjust Engine, Gear, OS, Module nodes' numbers to either be more "in-between" or "true extremities."

  • Loaded Engine line provides more ACCELERATION but lower DURABILITY and ARMOR.
  • Mod. Alloy Engine line provides more ACCELERATION but lower POWER, MAGAZINE LOAD, and ENERGY CAP
  • Heat Turbines and Power Redirector now provides 30 ACCELERATION instead of 35 ACCELERATION.
  • Slayer OS line provides more SHIELDS and SHIELDS REGEN but lower ACCURACY, MAGAZINE RELOAD, and ENERGY RECHARGE.
  • CELLBURN OS line provides more ACCURACY but lower SHIELDS and SHIELDS REGEN.
  • All RAW attack numbers are lowered, but enemy resistances are lowered to match as well. This is to allow nodes that increase raw stats to not reach cap and lose value. Results are slight overall increment in attack power.
  • In addition to the problem above, we've also removed POWER and ACCURACY from Architecture nodes and add them straight into PHYSICAL, PIERCING, and PLASMA damage so the game provides a more accurate number for players to see. We've also added some other complimentary stats to those that have power and accuracy removed.


Problem: Some tech nodes are overperforming (slotted in almost every build of the archetype) or underperforming (not even considered for usage).

Solution: Perform slight adjustments for overperforming nodes to bring them in line with other tech nodes. Perform large adjustments for underperforming nodes to get them to contest tech slots with other nodes. Change a node that found zero use into something else entirely. Tier 6 and 7 node changes are mostly undocumented but follow the same rules.

  • For ease of usage with Living Metal, Durable Fiber I and II and Crisis-Powered Fiber now works under 40% Durability instead. Their percentages are decreased to balance the numbers out.
  • Forceful Tinkering both types had their negatives raised by 5% to balance the power it had brought to the table on every build.
  • Shieldsformer System found low usage with players due to how shields regeneration works and players not feeling the node's power itself. Shieldsformer System and Insta-Shieldsformer now has added functionality of reducing time before shields start regenerating (yes, we just had time to code that functionality in).
  • Reactive Armor I, and Reactive Armor II now provides a 5% more armor, but lower defense buff on activation.
  • LC Reactive Armor now provides 1 second of 50% increased defense instead of 0.75 seconds and 100% increased defense. Its cooldown is now 5 seconds.
  • Impact Converter I and II (Tier 6) is slightly updated to have cooldowns but provides more recovery.
  • Outer Layer Shields had their percentages lowered to 50% while deactivation chance is lowered to 35%. This should allow OLS to still tank consecutive heavy hits.
  • Perpetual Generator I had its numbers changed to 5% Shields every 5 seconds instead of 2% every 2 seconds.
  • Perpetual Generator II is now Rapid-Regenerating Shields, it now provides -50% Shields Recovery but also reduced time before shields start regenerating by 50%.
  • Dueling Armor had its functionality changed to a simple defensive tech. It now provides 8% Armor and 12% reduced time before shields start regenerating.
  • Shields Re-Router now has 12% reduced time before shields start regenerating. Its in-combat shields regeneration is changed to Shields Recovery stat instead.

  • Phantom Gear had its cooldown changed from 11 seconds to 12 seconds.
  • Additional Thrusters FUEL BURN RATE from 15% to 150 + 5% instead. It also now has an EX-version that can stack.
  • Accelerated Walkers DURABILITY changed to -7% instead of -10%, but now has an additional -12% shields. It also now has an EX-version that can stack.
  • Afterburners damage is raised to 65% with a 1 second cooldown.
  • Frame Boosting System now has +200 and +10% Fuel Burn Rate instead of +30%

  • Binary Monarch and Full Metal Jacket is changed to only provides ammo benefits with how prevalent they are on ranged builds (one node provides too much power) while other ammo regain nodes are mostly unused. Both of their downsides are also changed to negative magazine reload/energy recharge instead of taking more damage or lower accelerations. This should allow players to still feel their respective weapons' damage while having a small downside to unlimited ammo. Their numbers are also changed slightly.
  • AI. Assisted Aim description is changed to better reflect what it does. It now reads "You gain a +35% increased PIERCING and PLASMA damage buff. Deactivate the buff for 5 seconds after hitting any enemy with any shooters."
  • Micro Ammunitions-Factory description is changed to better reflect what it does. It now reads "Every 5 seconds refill all Shooters ammo stock. Maximum Durability and Shields -85%."
  • Seismic Propulsion I and II now provides 400%/450% damage with a 5 second cooldown instead of 300%/350% with a 7/5 second cooldown. This should bring it to the same power as other nodes of similar usage.
  • Overheated Shooters had its numbers lowered to 20% instead of 25%.
  • Uninterrupted Support now provides flat increment alongside percentages. It also provides additional EN Recharge and MAG Reload.

  • Uninterrupted Support now provides +30% increased raw stats instead of in-mission buffs. It now also provides straight +600 raw PIERCING and PLASMA damage so those who're playing with main units that doesn't provide enough ranged damage stats can still reap the benefit of this tech.
  • Powered Nanorobotics now has a 3 second cooldown instead of 5 seconds.
  • Heated Engines changed to provide RAW Acceleration stats and a speed buff that lasts 4 seconds every 8 seconds (so total downtime of 4 seconds) for the ease of use.
  • Type 2 Arms S. Batteries are changed to Kinetic Reversal, a node that provides increased damage for a brief period when taking any damage, no chances involved. On that note, Type 2 Arms S. Battery is not removed but moved into the Close combat tree on the right side instead.

  • Tinkerer's Blade now has a 0.8 second cooldown. Its damage is increased to compensate and now only has a downside on its PHYSICAL damage part instead of TOTAL damage This alongside the dash attack cooldown increase should bring it to acceptable levels.
  • Alt. Power Transference Unit(s) had their numbers increased to 18% and 22%.
  • All transference unit now provides +4% additional respective damage.
  • Blaze Arms Enhancer now provides +75% Burn damage instead of +60% Burn damage.
  • Melting Chemicals is changed to +35% Burn damage with +35% Duration instead.
  • Both Effective Conductive Materials now also provides +200 all property damage in addition to its duration increment. They can stack.
  • Suncaller and Stormwielder now has a FREEZE variant and have replaced where Optics, Wirings, and Paddings used to be (tier 6 property damages nodes). Introduced two new nodes to replace where Suncaller and Stormwielder used to be. Please recheck your tuning before playing in any missions.

  • Forceful Tinkering, Shields Enhancer, Gravitation Defier(s), Fueled Strikes, Aegis Reinforcements, Quantum Spender status buffs changed to be reflected in the tuning page (instead of total attack, physical, piercing, or plasma buffs, you now get all or specific status increase/decrease). This makes all of them stackable between tiers, but now has a soft cap with status.
  • To replace the nodes where Stormwielder and Suncaller used to be, we moved Type 2 Arms. S. Battery there as well as a new node called Airblast Trigger which basically halves your damage but makes you attack twice.
  • Fueled Strikes now has +50 Fuel Burn Rate. Its fuel removal now has a 1 second cooldown and will now only remove 5% fuel. It now has +10% Physical attack with 10% more chance to burn and weak instead.
  • Gravitation Defier I and II now provides +80/80 ACCELERATION, ARMOR -200/-200 and -12%/-12%, gain 17%/19% Physical Damage, and 8%/9% Piercing and Plasma Damage. This is a fix to our knee-jerk reaction that over buffed it in our last hotfixes of 0.8.0.
  • Continuous Inertia has its percentages buffed by 5% each stage.
  • Void-Reactive Weapon damage is lowered to 1000% instead of 2000% and a 3 second cooldown instead of 1.
  • Void-Reactive Armor is changed to Volatile VRW, it is basically a higher chance, lower damage version of Void-Reactive Weapon and you can use the two of them together.
  • Void Converter (T7) is changed to Void-Reactive Weapon II.

  • Quantum Mechanics Research and Energy Collector has been changed to a jack of all QB node.
  • Quantum Acceleration Research and Particle Accelerator has been changed to be a Quantum Break activation time reduction node. It also provides additional ACCELERATION.
  • Quantum Control Research and Amplification Module has been changed to be nodes that cut down charge consumption of attacks in Quantum Break and also increase damage ramping.
  • Quantum Coating Research and Q. Stabilizing Fields has its numbers changed. With the new base QB duration changes, these nodes are extremely effective in lengthening QB duration.


Designed 4 new tech nodes that will immediately activate Quantum Break on the press of a button, each functioning differently. Please check their descriptions in-game.

  • Energy Collector I has been changed to Immediate Enhancement: Instant QB in trade of duration
  • Particle Accelerator I has been changed to Quantum Empowerment: Instant powerup for 20 seconds
  • Amplification Module I has been changed to Quantum Kelvinizer: Instant freeze bomb
  • Q. Augmented Rechargers has been changed to Quantum Rejuvenator: Instant max shields

  • Momentum Spiker has its numbers changed to be higher buff with a lower duration.
  • Accelerating Subunit now provides -25% Quantum Break activation time instead of releasing heat waves (as with shields regen time, we just had time to code this functionality into the game).
  • Kinetic Cage had its numbers changed to gain 5% Quantum Break charges on being hit with a 3 second cooldown. It now also has a 2% chance to fill 100% Quantum charges immediately on taking damage and a flat 5% increased ARMOR.
  • Enigmatic Amplifier had its downsides removed but is also less effective.
  • Quantum Spender I is changed to a non-extreme version with a lower negative yet retaining their positive sides.
  • Quantum Spender II is changed to the extreme version of Quantum Spender (name change into Quantum Spender EX). Its numbers are now much higher on both ends.
  • Quantum Coating Research had its duration increased from 20% to 25% but removed all over time consumption reduction.
  • Sky Disperser I and II is changed to a node that releases heat waves like Accelerating Subunit used to be. We have saw how players used it during its bugged state and decided to keep it at almost the same amount of power (lowering damage to 150% instead of 200%) but making it trigger every second just like it did before. This should not be too powerful as it takes a node slot in conjunction with the much lower QB duration.
  • Essence Redistributor now has opposite effect, making attacks consume more but less over time due to the changes making time much more significant.
  • A few changes here and there for ramping damage nodes as QB duration is drastically reduced.


General ranged playstyle changes.
With the introduction of new launchers in 0.8.0, ranged powers were not adjusted to a satisfactory level in terms of overpowering other types. We're doing it here in 0.9.0

  • Slightly lower BEAM and SLASH energy launcher damage per hit and its stagger damage. It should not deplete enemies' stamina or HP in an instant now.
  • Slightly increase PHOTON energy launcher damage per hit.
  • Lowered Auto Energy shooter min attack speed but retain the same maximum. Players will need to invest more into acceleration to achieve the speed they had before.
  • Adjusted the magazine load, energy cap, and energy recharge formulas for some weapons. Players are now required to invest more into these stats to achieve the same level of power they used to have. We've also adjusted a lot of nodes focusing on these statuses as well so those who are investing before will feel the same.
  • Increased ARMOR values on most nodes with ARMOR, while also slightly increasing enemies attack power at later stages of the game and higher difficulties.
  • As newer players are being suggested by min-maxing players about the "optimal way to play the game" too much to our liking, we've decided to lower the recharge rate of EN weapons as a whole while they're not active. Players won't feel forced to bring in more than one EN shooter to optimally play the game now. Combined with the change to EN Recharge stats, we feel that this should bring it more in line with other weapons.


Other changes

  • Redline Battlefront's boss will now start firing at wave 3 onwards instead of wave 10.
  • Gates of Ascension bosses have their status adjusted accordingly to accommodate players with higher tier equipment.
  • Void Convergence enemies' start out a little stronger than before.
  • More dialogues have been added into the game to better explain the world and events.
  • Changed some dialogues and texts per request of players to help improve the game.


Bug Fixes

  • Some Quarks in Crater Crashers is dealing less than intended damage. Be more careful of explosions now.
  • Alpha Assaulter now actually has correct values (FINALLY!).
  • Uninterrupted Support now works for both bullet and energy launcher properly. The description now highlights the detrimental part of the subunit.
  • Weight is now a true flavor stat with no relation to other stats value.
  • Fixed a lot of nodes description to reflect how they only work in mission and not to raw status.
  • Afterburners cooldown was non-existence, it now works properly.
  • Fixed Photography mode lens flare not appearing problem.
  • Fixed the sound spike of the worm boss.
  • Other minor bug fixes.


Discord: discord.gg/quS7E46
Feedback Hub: bit.ly/3wpWofe

WIP: 0.9.0 Alpha CO-OP Missions Preview


Hello everyone, today's a short preview of the coming multiplayer missions you'll get to try your hands on with your friends (or enemies, we don't judge). As we've mentioned months before, we've decided to add co-op missions into this update as it took a long time and came out with three of them.



But before getting into any of them, we'd like to let you know the missions we're showing is mostly simple as their purpose is testing out multiplayer in its alpha version. If it works well, we will expand further on the ideas and feedbacks from these and make better in the future.



Now, let's take a look at the previews! We've got a mission that's like a simple single player mission, this time with other players.



Then there's the other two missions where we tried to simulate challenges into co-op settings. It'll still follow normal missions' ruleset, but we think it'll be fun to fight against either waves of enemies... or a really strong boss fight with your friends.



Discord: discord.gg/quS7E46
Feedback Hub: bit.ly/3wpWofe

WIP: Introducing Weak Point System


Hello and welcome to another WIP update, this week, introducing a new system we've been planning to implement for a good while, the Weak Point System. You might've seen us mention it in the AMA when in reality, we've been working on it long before that.



The weak point system is a just like its name, a system where players can attack some parts of a boss level Quark to dish out a ton more damage onto them. It is designed to reward players who are able to utilize, increases depth of combat against bosses, and raises the skill ceiling. They won't be shown until you finally score a hit onto the weak point, and their notifications will only show for a few seconds. Now we know there are concerns with how easy they can be targeted by ranged builds while not being able to be used to an effect by close combat builds. To that, let us explain further some of the balance that will be made with the introduction of this feature.

First, all weak points are not lockable, that means ranged players must aim at those points manually. Your attacks will count as a weak point hit IF it hits near the center of the hitbox, though they are quite large, so ranged AoE weapons like detonators will need to be fired directly at the weak point to score a HIT. You'll see a yellow number instead of the normal white as indication of that.



Second, status balancing has occured once again, this time with this system in mind. Close combat players do not need to hit at weak points to hit hard but will hit much higher if they can hit the weak point. Ranged players have receive a slightly lower damage balancing, but with the ease of access to weakpoints at all times, they can consistently do good damage.

Third, weakpoints are easily accessible when bosses deplete their stamina. This means close combat players that can hit bosses to the ground will have windows where they can delete bosses' health bar (in conjunction with the new QB update). We'll keep an eye on these factors and see if we'll need to perform any balancing before the final patch of 0.9.0 kicks in a week later.

And on another note, we'll be disabling all special movement openers (rise, leap, etc.) in 0.9.0. We know this is controversial as players who played with "no-locks" (or challenge themselves to not use it) hate the system so much due to how our algorithm calculates which move to use while players who utilized "locks" skillfully on and off at the correct moment loved the system and had a great time using to to follow enemies, especially bosses, around with ease. We've disabled them this time as we wanted the first group of players to have an easier game to play in this higher skill ceiling. Until we find a good way to bring them back in the future, we'll keep it disabled.

To close out, the weak point system and the disabling of these was only possible with how late we are and how long we took to get this update out. We do have a date in mind now and everything is looking good. See you next week!

Discord: discord.gg/quS7E46
Feedback Hub: bit.ly/3wpWofe

WIP: 0.9.0 New Hunt Mission


Hello everyone. We're at the end of October now and with November in sight, the update looms closer (yes, we're still on that HOPIUM road saying we'll update the game in November). With that said, we'd like to show an extra content we've worked on while finalizing other systems, a new hunt mission.



Here, you'll find yourself in a dried-up waterway inside a shelter, facing against M.A.S.S. units, helping the W.D.F. test their version of unmanned units. As always with M.A.S.S. units enemies, it's going to be a mayhem of explosions and we hope you'll have fun with it.















Discord: discord.gg/quS7E46
Feedback Hub: bit.ly/3wpWofe

WIP: 0.9.0 New Mission Shetler Setting Sneak Peek


Welcome back to another weekly WIP post, this time featuring the more completed version of one of the new missions coming with the 0.9.0 update with an urban, in-shelter setting. We'd like to give you a glimpse of a shelter's perimeter and what we as PMC are trying to protect.











The mission will feature both the inner areas, where people spend their days and try to hold onto what livelihood of the old days they still have, the walls, and outside the walls itself.





















See you next week!
Discord: discord.gg/quS7E46
Feedback Hub: bit.ly/3wpWofe

WIP: More 0.9.0 OST Preview and Community Showcase!


Here comes the M.A.S.S. Community Showcase 2022 showing off the creations of our players! We are extremely thankful to see your creations, doing much more than we could do and letting us know that what we've been developing these past few years is something of essence.


Alongside our Community Showcase, we'd like to release two more OST as WIP update for this week! 0.9.0 is coming along nicely and while we're still in the process to optimize it, we're adding new things we didn't plan to do so at first. Can't wait to show some of them in the coming weeks!





Discord: discord.gg/quS7E46
Feedback Hub: bit.ly/3wpWofe

3rd Anniversary AMA part 2
Continuing from last week, today is part 2 of the AMA, regarding mostly questions about customizations! We have heard feedback about wanting more explanation to why things are answered that way and we'll try to answer each question to our best.

FRAME and OVERALL CUSTOMIZATION



Delphonse:
Will you allow players to create custom avatars?


Let us quote what we've said last year:
"No, we aren’t planning to have that system in-game. The game is written to have players headcanon their own pilot into the game and we think pilot avatars will take away from that experience. A pilot avatar customization system will take away from that immersion by providing choices that might not fit everyone’s idea of their pilots. Like, if we have 10 images and 20 choices of face of pilots available and it does not represent what you want to look like, it’s not going to be good right
?"

To further explain our answer, we'd like you to imagine all the different people playing this game, each having their own image and story of the game itself. One might want to represent themselves as a human, another as a dragon, another as a sentient AI, a kemonomimi of sorts, or maybe a cyborg. To satisfy every of these ones, we must create hundreds and thousands of customization (can't just be an image, right?) for everything, hairstyle, color, horns, base looks, etc.

Honestly it's not feasible for us to do something like that which might end up still not satisfying another group that we haven't thought of in the first place. Also, from last year's answer:

"Another thing, where does your pilot come into play? If there are pilot avatars available, we will need a place to display it, like, you will need to be able to have a choice to respond to NPCs both in missions and in base dialogues also. That makes it really harder to provide immersion into the game itself, since there will not be 30 choices available, but like, at most 3."

We hope you understand why we won't put avatar customization in our game.

Tsubasa:
Are docking points for drones and weapons still considered by VD?

Brad:
Will it be possible in the future to set Launchers/Bits to dock somewhere on your MASS when not being used and for picture mode?

Anonymous:
Can weapons be customized with hardpoints, such as a combat weapon mounted directly on the shoulder, backpack, shield, etc., so that it can be displayed on the body even when the weapon is not in use


No, quoting from last year's:

"...they are purely for aesthetical purpose, and drone docks we count as functional, as they must work alongside the drone system. And each type of new energy launcher might not have the same number of drones or sizes and it will not work. We will need to isolate systems from each other so missile pods cannot work as well because each bullet launcher has a fixed specific number of bullets, projectiles to fire already..."

For weapons, however, we wanted to do it but there is a lot of conditions to satisfy first before we can start working on them and there isn't a good solution to them. There are too many weapons in the game, not just a simple piece of sword or dagger or gun, but anything possible through accessories. What if make the system and they just float clip into the ground due to its length and whatnot. Those are the kind of things we need to look at and solve first. We will not deny this, but we'll only take a look after Early Access is done.

RAINING TIKI:
Will there ever be an option to Increase and Decrease the size of a Shoulder/Arm/Hip/Leg/Ankle Piece? Like on the Default parts for those who don't use accessories out of difficulty.


We know this is something that players have been asking for every year. The answer is still no, the current scaling is already at the maximum and minimum without compromising other things (animations, gameplay hitboxes, OG parts that doesn't clip into each other).

I'd like to talk more about this topic. We know there's a lot of people over/underscaling the base frame pieces with third party tools and have been requesting the same thing quoting "why does VD care anymore about clipping issues when they've given Accessories." The answer to that question is because there are players of different levels and different mindsets, some would want baseline to look as great as it can be and use only functional sliders for the ease of it, some might mind a lot about clipping issues in their animations (you see people bashing about games where parts of the shoulders/arms clip into the body). If we make things clip from the baseline, things would be awkward in both aesthetics and gameplay level (think lower scaling to the extreme and hitboxes aren't relatable to the size of the M.A.S.S. unit). Some animations would be weird and clip into each other hard and it is something we would like to avoid at all costs.

Floofy Poofy:
Can we pick how a Weapon Functions... within reason? For example, I want to make a Halberd but when I do the game says its a Mace... But Clearly its not. Stuff like that?


We have to deny this one as well. While in the current version, this seems to be doable, it is something that would certainly impact the creation of future weapons, an example being the flail or whip archetype that comes to mind immediately. Those particular functions require a specific model functionality to be able to work without glitches (gameplay and aesthetically) to stretch and/or shrink. We aren't able to make one model that fits all of those things and we don't want to come back to every piece of model and make it work when we wanted to create something new or different. We will try to make more variations fo each functionality though, but that would only come after more and more functionalities are created to fulfill the creation dreams of our players.

Dice2k:
Will you try to make parts that would make M.A.S.S jets simple transformations?

Kickersboy07:
i wother will there be a feature where your mech can transform into a vehicle like a spaceship or a car. If so, how much can you customize. If not, are there going to be any plans for something similar.

TK:
First, it seems impossible, but I'd like to have a variable frame. I think it would be more fun if we could unify it with a simple deformation structure like WING Gundam and attach parts to it to make our own variable gas.

Anonymous - Will there be transformable skeletons in the future?


We'll answer these three questions together first by quoting last year's:

"No, transforming frames are out of the question. It messes too much with the system if we’re making a frame that can transform between two forms. Weapons that can move around a bit are a possibility. Since you know we have motioned weapon parts already, so if we do have time we might expand further on those ideas towards melee or towards other kind of shooters, but no, armor parts will never get motion tag."

For further explanation, transforming frames have too many complications. Let's talk about simple ones first, such as hatches opening and closing upon using thrusters. Seems simple enough, but what would happen when players start and stop boosing immediately, repetitively? How to make those kind of things smooth, how to make thruster effects or any kind of transformations happen without looking awkward? Those things should be as foolproof to what they're designed to do as possible.

Looking further to full body transformation, how to set each form comes to mind, which part moves where, how to make them not clip into each other as much as possible, what is the trigger, a button? Automatic transformation? What benefits must it have to the player? Is one form better than the other in gameplay terms? There is too much to handle when the baseline is as free to customize with as our game, unlike others that have certain specific parts already designed as a pack for transformation.

Varien:
Is it possible to get different hanger poses to make it easier to build such as a A or T pose?


It is not possible. There are certain systems attached to the current pose (such as holding up the arm, zooming into the hands) such that adding more poses would have us reworking a good part of the customization system. You've already tasted how long it takes us reworking the game through the creation of multiplayer, we don't want to work with no ends in sight for another year with zero updates aside from WIP previews.

lord of spoon:
will we see light pulsing or color changing in the paint menus


No, effects and active light changing as well as gradient coloring requires much more from a player's graphics card and we don't want to further this burden into the extremes. We created M.A.S.S. Builder and tested the game with PCs as old as a decade ago and we still aim to have those PCs able to play the game, albeit almost impossible in the current iteration.

Krakenumbreon:
Will you guys be adding the option for different walking and running animations?

DynamicCity:
Any plan to implement different way our M.A.S.S. frame moves on ground? For example: Hovering on the ground (like Dom in mobile suit gundam series)


To the first question, there is only one movement in the game that's not boosting, but if you meant different types of movements then that's another story. Different movement animations such as hover movement, low angle running, etc. Stuffs like this will be further investigated after 1.0 is released. We will not outright deny it but it is something we will not look into at all before version 1.0 is done and we're out of Early Access.

Faze Walker:
If fans asked of more custom parts like to make the charecters look more anime part human like charecters would you add such parts?and hope this is alright but i would also like to ask if we can see more customizable look for the little helpers/drones we have like making them look like tiny version robots and such just for looks tho


We do think there are a lot of parts that can make your M.A.S.S. unit humanoid already, especially looking at some players' creations. We've added a lot in 0.7.0 that can satisfy these creations and if the need arise we'll work on more of them. For the energy launchers, we will also say they are extremely customizable that there are people making them look like dragon whelps, books, tiny robots and the likes already and we urge you to try and use the accessories system to make one!

Andrew:
Will there be added functionality to the Build engine such as warping, increased sizes? and hopefully many more parts?


Baseline armor parts and frames cannot be further scaled up or down already and this should be the final version of what you'll see in release as well. For more parts, these are something we wanted to do. We, at one point, even talked to each other that we should just rush every mission and core features to completion so that we may revise everything related to it and use all the time that we can outsource things (VA, more music, etc.) to create as much variation on armors, weapons, accessories, decals, etc. as possible in that timeframe.

Shield Liger:
I understand there are parts to create the ultimate m.a.s.s unit, but are there any plans for custom sound effects? For example, movement, sword attacks, thruster sound effects, and missiles? Salutes to the Vermillion Digital Team!


No, customization of sound effects is a box we don't want to open. Reasons are that sound effects is not just one single piece of sound bite for one single thing. It is a whole composition of various parts played in sequence to create something. In example, swinging a sword and hitting a Quark. There is a start of the swing, the swing itself might have 3 different sounds being played, the impact again has alot of sounds bites together.

Allowing the customization of every sound effects in the game would be overwhelming to both us the creator, having our sound person make at least 10 combinations of everything, multiplying their workload, as well as having players look at a list of every sound piece available, and then our programming team create a whole new system to do it, and having each unit's savefile size multiplied by a lot more is not something feasible to the project in every aspect.

AlbinoNemo:
Is there an estimate of when you plan to introduce frame-related changes? (For example, removable skirt armour or changing hand types)

Dante:
Will we get an option to get rid of side skirt frame for our MASS units

Invidia:
Could you add an options for invisible or removable weapon/frame part ? It could be annoying having to work around the the base weapon/frame part when creating our own design using accessories. Especially the skirt hardpoints, please let us remove those from the frame.

Eillis:
If/When can we expect the removal of waist pads on skeleton? They get in the way of creative design more often than not.

Anonymous:
Could we hide some skeleton that we don’t need,such as skirt and the feet?


To quote last year's:

...Things like hiding the skirt part sure, changing hands and fingers, and something else are all in there. However, the physique of the whole frame will not changes, as there will be a lot of complications that can happen. It will be a mess to changes the whole aesthetics of the frame itself, and even if you think making the frame smaller and bigger in some parts to represent muscular frame or feminine frame will not be troublesome, let me tell you that it is not easy at all...

On the question of when, we are still unable to even take a look at it so for now, I will say either at version 1.0 release or after that, before we start working on the Rex and Spider frame.

WaffleDefender:
What are the kind of mecha frames would you love to have despite not wanting it in the game?


This is a confusing question because we would like what we love to have to be added into the game so we'll answer it with the mech frames we liked but unable to be added into the game with our systems then. Frames like Wanzers are one, true mecha-musume is another, beast and draconic mechas, and SD is the final frame type we wanted to add but they have too much complications attached to them. We love to have them, but we don't want to have them in the game because of the hassle surrounding the creation of them.

Badzombies2003 - Have you ever thought about making non-humanoid M.A.S.S Units (like quadrupeds or more standard vehicles like tanks or planes)?

Gildedghoul:
Will there be an option in the future to make beast-style mechs?

Anonymous:
Consider non-humanoid mecha

Anonymous:
Whether to consider adding non-humanoid structure skeleton and expand the placement scope of accessories?

Reza Nox:
Will we see any customization with a different layout, like multiple legs or reverse joint legs?

Pazuzu wolfgang:
Well you be adding Spider legs, tank legs, Hover legs, and others to the game?

Farenhite:
Any chance of adding tank and hover leg types in a future update?

Cody Furlong:
When will we be getting Reverse Jointed, Digi-Grade, or Quad type mecha?

Lamp:
Is there any plans for new frames to build around like quadruped?

Phoenix257:
Are there plans for adding any new base skeletons such as quadripedal or reverse-joint?

Internicion:
Do you plan to add other frames such as one with multiple legs or digitigrade legs in M.A.S.S builder?

T.K. @ Oasis:
When, if ever, will the new base frames (Rex and Spider) seen in the M.A.S.S. Builder Kickstarter project page be available?

Shun The Witch:
I havent seen any talk about the other mass frame types like the multi legged one that afaik was on the kickstarter. Does anyone know anything?


Yes, there is the Rex (Reverse legs) and Spider (Quad legs or more) frames are promised as a stretch goal for our Kickstarter campaign and is in the plans. For the question when, we will start working on it after the game fully release out of Early Access into version 1.0 which would be extremely far away.

For non-humanoids like beasts, however, we cannot make them since our game uses M.A.S.S. units arms and hands to hold weapons with firing points and every other things attached to these places. Beasty, non-humanoids, gun-arms units cannot work with the system our game uses.

The Eldritch Mire:
I know you have announced Rex and Spider frames for post release of the game. So is there a probably we will eventually get a Centaur frame?


Honestly before we kickstarted our game, we were discussing whether we would have a spider frame or a centaur frame. We ended up choosing the Spider frame for that kind of aesthetics (and ease of work). We might look back after we completed after these two to what we wanted to create next but there's no plan at all after these two for now.

Oz:
Will you make alternative frames and/or non anime mecha style pieces. I'd really like to build 40k style titans and knights.


While we wanted to do mechwarriors and dreadnought type of mechs, it fully conflicts with how our game's weapons function and would not be feasible to just create a whole new system for them so I would have to fully deny any kind of mechs that have gun-arms.

Anonymous:
Can the attack position of the Beam launcher be changed or increased? I want to restore the GUYVER


No, changing its position will change things related to aiming the beam, the gameplay impact it has, and a lot of other things. Any customizations to an existing mechanic of a weapon cannot be done for just one thing since every other things will now want to be able to customized as well.

Anonymous:
Want the missile launcher appearance Settings to move to the armor screen, and show the MASS, it’s cumbersome to switch back and forth during appearance modification


As Bullet Launcher is a weapon and uses a different kind of system for their customization, it cannot be moved into the same menu as armors. There will also be a problem of having too many things in one page and the UI will be too cluttered to look good as well as making UX extremely confusing to have certain weapons be in the armor menu instead of all weapons in the weapons menu.

Anonymous:
Can you add a function that allows manual input of RGB values on the painting


No, let us quote last year's answer:

"...What do our players want. Do they want the color that’s associated with hex codes or RGB to display correctly in-game? Or do they don’t care about the displayed color but just the right color codes? These are two very different things, because even with the right numbers, with shaders and lightings and everything else, the displayed color, I can say it here right now, will not come out as expected.

The second important problem, the input problem, If you notice, every system in the game aside from name input itself, does not have anything that allows player to input anything in numbers. This is because we have been thinking about players with controllers in every form since the first day of the game and having those people constantly put down their controller to input things on their keyboard felt very annoying to us, so until we’re able to solve that problem, numbers input and color picker like you’ve seen in photo editing software are out of the question."

With that said, certain number of people have displayed unsatisfaction with this answer so let us explain further. The argument towards our stance comes from other games, including consoles, used on-screen keyboards to allow players to input text or numbers into certain fields. We, personally, don't think they belong in M.A.S.S. Builder at all since it is something much more difficult to navigate with controllers and looks extremely unpleasing, It is tedious and annoying to have OSK pop up to cover half the screen so one can input texts or numbers slowly. Applying OSK anywhere more than the naming screen would mean we will need to apply it everywhere in the game, in any system that wants it. People would demand us to put it on the tuning and development page to search for nodes which would result in more demands to allow filters and advanced search. People would demand it on the armor and weapons page to search for parts with certain names. The list goes on and the snowball does not stop rolling. We will say it right here that it is not feasible at all to add OSK into the game for any of these functions, certainly RGB values or HEX codes input and we will stand by our stance.

Anonymous:
Could you add a feature that allows the weapon to be fired from other parts of the body, so as to achieve the same effect as the Gundam midhead Vulcan gun


We cannot, weapons' firing starting point is pre-determined so as it works flawlessly with other aspects of the game. Customizing firing points to the head or anywhere else might cause certain weapons to be unable to hit enemies effectively and players will start telling us it is a bug as it bricks the weapon and they wanted to fire from these certain places. We don't want this problem to happen so the only thing to do is not allowing players to customize them in the first place.

Anonymous: Can the dual hold of a weapon be changed into two weapons of different shapes, such as melee weapon 1 and melee weapon 2 to form a dual hold combination? If SO, CAN YOU do the same with a shotgun in the left hand and a beam gun in the right hand?


Holding different weapons in dual wielding is not something that is available, reasons are, there's too much work to do in both gameplay and aesthetics department. With how M.A.S.S. Builder weapon functions, there are a lot of weapon types, each with different animations available. Mixing them in dual wielding is multiplying this work to infinity.

There will also be a demand to change our core gameplay and keybinds for "left hand attack" and "right hand attack" to mix things up and to create more depth in combat instead of the "attack" and "heavy" attack we currently have, which is basically changing the whole game in itself.

Anonymous:
Can I set a custom weapon type? Like a machine gun or artillery on a melee weapon, or a missile on a shield or something like that. For example, a dual weapon can transform into a heavy weapon. Armor can also be equipped with weapon functions


Transformable and functionally different weapons are a no go. We wanted to keep each weapon weapon as basic as it is so players can freely use any weapons of any looks to their desire and not having to worry about setting a weapon's or armor's usage functions. Remember, aesthetics must be separated from gameplay for as much as possible.

Anonymous:
Can you add cylindrical (similar to Zagu in Gunda), pointed claw (similar to the original Gaogaigar in Gaogaigar) fingers, and can you scale the size of the palm?


Hands and fingers improvement is something we promised to work on, but it's in the same scope as skirt removal. Not a thing we will do soon but certainly something we'll work on in the far future of the game.

Anonymous:
Can the camouflage effect and stickers in the armor color scheme coexist with the glow? Can camouflage colors and stickers not be covered by the glow effect?


No, patterns are on a layer that's lower than glows. If something covers the glow, the system won't be able to glow to its desire effect at all.

Anonymous:
Can you add weapons that are smaller than the real weapons available today and can you add more gun positions to it


Smaller weapons will be added into the game when we have the time to work on it, which we don't have a lot currently, seeing as we're months late into the 0.9.0 update now. We'll try to set a better schedule and expectations so that we can deliver more contents next time.

Anonymous:
Give us some pickling effect painting


Pickling effects pertain into the realm of transparency (coating on top to create certain effects) and we are unable to do transparency in M.A.S.S. Builder. If you want to know why we cannot do transparency, the answers lie in our last AMA.

Anonymous:
Can you give us more details about the simple weapon parts you're working on? How small can it be? Is it just guns or is it all weapons? Does it include shields and launchers?


Sure! The simple weapon parts are mostly an extremely stripped down to polygons version of existing weapons. They have the same size as the current weapons you have so the M.A.S.S. unit holds it in the same way, but without details added. Think of it as the smallest weapon available currently but stripped of all excess decorations so you have a blank template to work on. For now, the only ones finished are shooters but we do plan to have simple parts for melee weapons and shields as well.

WIP: Multiplayer Mode OST Preview


Hello everyone! It's been another week that we still haven't gotten 0.9.0 out and we're extremely regretful that it won't be on time for our 3rd anniversary. With that said, some of our works have far passed 0.9.0 already, namely the soundtracks we'll be using. As it's one of the requested content to be put out for easy listening, we've decided to give you a preview of the soundtracks coming to the game soon! We hope to be able to push 0.9.0 out as soon as we can. See you next week!





Discord: discord.gg/quS7E46
Feedback Hub: bit.ly/3wpWofe

WIP: 0.9.0 Upcoming Boss#2 Model Preview


Welcome back to another WIP update. We know it's been far too long for the multiplayer update coming but we're still working on it. In the meantime, we'd like to talk show a small preview of an upcoming boss in the coming 0.9.0 update! See you next week!





Discord: discord.gg/quS7E46
Feedback Hub: bit.ly/3wpWofe

WIP: 0.9.0 QOL Update


Hello everyone! With works on multiplayer still being done, we've decided to work on some small quality of life updates for you players. We hope this will help you players in your future gaming sessions. Let's take a look at each of them!



In the coming 0.9.0 version, players will now be able to search for nodes using alphabetical sorting. We hope it'll help you find the nodes you just unlocked or tune your units with ease.





Aside from that, players are now able to hold down shift to skip the animation / loading while building new parts or developing new units and sub-units. We hope you'll have a better time and able to work on your M.A.S.S. units much faster than before. See you next week!

Discord: discord.gg/quS7E46
Feedback Hub: bit.ly/3wpWofe
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