Mercs cover
Mercs screenshot
PC Steam
Genre: Strategy, Indie

Mercs

Update 0.1.7 - Friend challenges and leaderboards
Two big changes with this update:

Online Multiplayer challenges
First, players can now challenge friends to an online match instead of looking for a random multiplayer match.
If a friend is online and in-game, you will see his name in the top left panel on the main screen. If you click on the name, you will be presented with a pop-up asking if you want to send a challenge. If you do so, your friend will see in the same panel that you have challenged him, next to your name. To accept a challenge, just click on the friend's name and answer yes in the pop-up.

Monthly Leaderboard
Second, there is now a monthly leaderboard. You can find it in the top right corner of the main screen. The score is given by the total number of stars gained in the last 30 days.
Sadly, all the scores from last week have gone lost, because I messed up something (yes, again...) before leaving. The in-game leaderboard is updated every 30 seconds, so if you don't see yours score right away, just wait for the next polling cycle.

So, what else to say... Try to beat my score! :)

As always, feel free to let me know what you like or don't like about these features.

Updates schedule, vacations and a slight delay
In the last update notes I said: "If all goes well, the next update will reveal the whole new leaderboard in all of its glory"

Well, all didn't go well :)

I mean, technically it was working, but it generated a lot of behind the scenes web api calls that were not really necessary, and introduced some delays in the leaderboard updates. So after days of testing I scratched that and coded an alternate mechanism for the monthly leaderboard.

Also, I introduced a way for players to challenge in-game friends to a multiplayer match, instead of trying to find a random opponent. I'm currently putting the last finishing touches on this feature, then it will need some more testing.

In addition to all of the above, tomorrow I'm leaving for a week of vacation, so I decided not to release any updates this week, since in the next days I won't be ablo to fix things quickly should anything go south with the new features.

So, the next update should be released some time in the week after the next one.

See you in a few days!

Update 0.1.6 - Nothing has changed... or has it?
Yes, something has changed, but you won't see it... yet.

I'm working on implementing a monthly leaderboard, and it's a bit more complicated than it seems. This is because I don't want results older than a month to be taken into account, and this is something that Steam's leaderboards don't offer out of the box. So I'm testing a possible implementation...


The solution I'm currently testing has the game clients save their score on a daily hidden leaderboard. Meanwhile, the game server runs a script every 10 minutes that deletes daily leaderboards older than 30 days. Then takes all the results from the remaining ones and adds them up into a global public leaderboard. This creates a "sliding window" for the results of the past month only.



If all goes well, the next update will reveal the whole new leaderboard in all of its glory :)

Update 0.1.5 - Steam Achievements
Some of you might have noticed Steam Achievements being gradually added in the last few days... Now they are fully implemented and are ready to be earned!

Hope you enjoy them!


... also, some minor bug fixes:

  • Under some circumstances it was possible to repeatedly throw all types of grenades even when not having enough APs to do so. Great fun for the one that does the throwing, not so much for the one receiving the blasts...

Update 0.1.4 - Online multiplayer stability
I made a few tweaks to the matchmaking queue, hopefully fixing a couple of issues that could cause games not to start or crash.


When a player pressed the ESC key to quit searching for an online match, the server didn't remove the request from the game search queue quickly enough, nor it marked it as no longer valid.
This meant that if another player connected shortly after a game search was canceled, the server tried to start a match between the new player and the first one, who was no longer connected.
Also, if a player cancelled a game search and then started a new one, he could be matched against himself, as both his requests (the old one and the new) were seen by the server as still pending.
Now the game search requests are invalidated as soon as a player leaves, so this issue should no longer happen.


TL;DR: the online multiplayer had a few issues. Now it shouldn't.

Should you experience any problems, please report them in the Technical issues forum.

Thanks!

Update 0.1.3 - A new mission and the win streak bonus
The new "Supply run" mission has been added. Catch the golden crates before your opponent does!

Also, winning 3 or more games in a row grants a bonus to the stars earned:

  • 3-win streak: +1 star per victory
  • 6-win streak: +2 stars per victory
  • 9-win streak: +3 stars per victory


What do you think about these additions? Let me know in the comments or in the forums!

Update 0.1.2 - New camera zoom
Some people have been asking for a camera zoom, so here you go!

You can control the camera with the following keys:


  • Zoom in/out: mouse wheel
  • Move around: WASD keys
  • Rotate left/right: Q/E keys
  • Reset camera: R key
  • Flip camera to and from top-down view: F key


To be honest I'm not sure I like this addition. While it's nice to look at, I believe it gives the player some sort of "tunnel vision" and prevents from having the whole board under control.

But hey, it's always an option. You can hit the R key anytime and return to the standard view of the board.

Let me know what you guys think!