Mechabellum Dev Log #1

Originally posted in: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/669330/view/3719456529733003847

Greetings, my fellow commanders! Thanks for all your support, Mechabellum had a great EA launch with a 91% recommend rate! Here is our first Dev Log. And we will try to post Dev Log regularly in the future to show you guys what are working on and answer all your questions.

The Roadmap

Important note: Game development is complicated and full of uncertainty, the roadmap is subject o change.

Before the end of June

-Improve the matchmaking experience, automatches will be using the standard Elo rating system.
-Enable players to vote to speed up game progress.
-Enable spectator delay by default in automatches and tournaments.
-Improve the report system, so we can manage the public chat better.
-Make 1-2 balance adjustments.
-Implement Various quality-of-life improvements.
-Add several new unit techs.

Before the end of July

-Launch the Credits Store, which includes avatars, avatar frames, and emotes.
-Add a third device besides Sentry Missiles and Shield Generators: Missile Interceptor
-Add fortification upgrades to the core buildings, which can consume supplies to increase the HP of core buildings.
-Optimize the replay viewing experience.
-Optimize the lobby UI layout.
-Add more unit techs and reinforcement cards.

Before the end of August

-Allows AI to take over surrendered teammates in 2v2 and continue the game.
-Add a more compact 2v2 map
-Add super giant unit: War Factory.
-Add unit skins to the credit store.

Farther

-Added 4-player free for all mode.
-Optimize the experience of survival mode.
-Adds 2 new core units: Wraith(air) and Scorpian(land). The unit names are temporary.
-Add 4-6 experimental units, they are enhanced (often enlarged) variants of existing units, and they will first appear as bosses in survival mode.

Answering community Questions

Yes, we read most of your comments under Patchnotes, your posts on Steam Discussion and Discord, and we watch Twitch streams regularly to see how players with different skill levels play.

Can I become stronger by paying(Pay to Win) in the future?
No.

Will you continue to update the game?
We have big plans for the game still for the Early Access phase, so we will continue to update the game for sure. After the early access period, we will keep updating the game for as long as possible.

Will you make improvements to the matchmaking experience?
The current combat power system is designed for a small community of players who mainly fight in the lobby. At present, it has not been able to bring an excellent experience to players who play auto matchmaking, and many players cannot be matched with suitable opponents. We will add a new matchmaking system based on the standard Elo method as soon as possible in June, which will work together with the current combat power system. And we will keep improving the matchmaking experience.

In the later stage of a battle, sometimes the pace is very slow, is there a way to speed it up?
In the future, we will automatically speed up battles in some situations, such as when one side has only air forces left and the other side has no anti-air units. In addition, we will also add the function of players from both sides voting to speed up the battle

Sentry missile is so powerful, why?
Sentry missiles, shield devices, nukes, and various commands in the command center, they all take on an important role in the game: allowing players to quickly increase their own strength to solve problems in the current round at the expense of long-term economy. Because of their existence, the power curves of both players will lead alternately in a game, which is why comebacks happen so frequently in this game. Although the Sentinel Missile is very powerful in the current round, because it can only explode once, it will hurt the player’s long-term economy. We think the current strength of sentry missiles is appropriate, and the offense and defense around sentry missiles provide more strategy for the game.

Are the nukes in the Research Center hurting the strategy of the game?
Our original intention of designing the nuke is to provide players with a way to immediately forcefully break the enemy lineup in the current round at the cost of future economy. But at present, because it is often difficult for weaker players to grasp the timing to use nukes, nukes often become the advantage amplifiers for leading players in the lower ladder. And nukes give aggressive strategies too much advantage. Taking these factors into consideration, in the recent patch, we decided to move Nuke out of the Reseachcenter and make it a reinforcement card with a price of 350.

Will there be new units?
At present, we still have 3 planned core units that have not yet been released. One is a super giant unit that costs 800 supplies, one is a medium ground unit that costs 300 supplies, and one is a medium air unit that costs 300 supplies. In addition to the 3 new core units, we are also making 4-6 units which are experimental variants of the current units, often very large in size, with powerful attributes and techs, and they will first be used as bosses in survival mode and may later be moved to PvP battles as reinforcements card. Beyond all this, we will try to introduce non-mech units in the future when we have the time and capacity to design and test them fully.

That’s all for today. We will try to make this Dev Log a regular thing. Thank you all for reading and supporting us, write in the comment section, Discord server, or Steam Discussion if you have more questions, and we will try to answer them in the next Dev Log. See you around!