Miners Mettle News

A bunch of fixes for this week’s patch, squashing some crashes and improvements to the right click movement introduced in last weeks’ patch. We also improved our material load flow, which should notably improve load times for all players.

Gameplay
Indicators for pathfinding are now shown, instead of just the destination.
Removed a wrong tooltip popping up at the train destination.

Fixed
A bug where the up and down arrow keys were not updating on the map select screen, thanks Zpajro!
Three separate crashes on client caused by replicating at the wrong time.
A stuck state caused when a player would cancel a queued minishield.
Various crashes related to pathfinding.
Train pathing to better include some edge cases where the train would keep going back and forth at intersections.
Up the research screen a little bit, ahead of a full revamp we will begin work on next week.

This week’s patch brings in improved pathfinding, and right-click movement. This will help players to handle multiple units easier, as they will require less babysitting and micromanagement. Other notable changes include multiple crash and ability fixes.

Gameplay
Right-click movement is now in. You can use the right mouse button to order a unit to move to your desired location. If you select a facility or point of interest, your ordered unit will dock at the spot.
Improved pathfinding for AI units as well, particularly reducing the amount they pool and stop at intersections, preventing easy target situations.
Some chips were unintentionally ridiculously overpowered. Critical damage, projectile speed, Damage AoE have all been reduced to their intended levels.

UI
Fixed a few issues with chips UI

Fixed
A bug where only one chip was buffing its unit and the other two chips were doing nothing
A crash while exiting to the main menu
A unit being unable to dock if another unit was destroyed while docked at that facility
Light beams on destroyed facilities were not dispersing as intended
A random crash on client when mini-shield values were replicated

A lighter patch this week as we mostly work on new features due soon. Many of the changes are to do with the game log, which is the where in-game notifications come in on the bottom left of the HUD.

UI
Many game log improvements – improved phrasing, removed instances of some notifications coming in twice, individualized AMPs so it’s clearer which AMP is involved in the event, tighter time windows for notifications by default, and several other changes.
Game Log customization – Players can now choose which notifications show up in the game log, in the Settings menu. The length of the notification and the coloring scheme are also customizable.
The faction lore at the faction select screen has been changed and been formatted better.

Graphics
Players can now turn off the light beams added in last patch if they wish. The option is in the graphics section of Settings.
Chip meshes are now visible, with each faction getting a distinct style. We have further plans to deepen the chip system and these meshes are the first step.

Bugs
Fixed a couple of crashes, relating to client replication.

This week’s patch finishes the lighting improvements, which roll out to the remaining 3 biomes, so now all maps should have equally excellent lighting. We also have a new graphical improvement, following feedback to make our maps look a bit livelier, in the form of light beams that cover facilities, and other points of interest around the map. We think they look neat! Here's a glimpse at what they look like: https://imgur.com/gallery/oP0UN2l

Gameplay
We introduced a new aiming control scheme last week, but it didn’t work inverted. Now it does. Some other improvements as well, making it feel smoother.

Graphics
Improved lighting for the Snow, Desert and Volcano biomes.
Light beams over all facilities and points of interest on the map. This also has a benefit of making it easier to find certain things in the world view.

UI
Our AMP selection UI in the top left now accurately shows the maximum number of units you can build. For example, if you had 2 AMPs and AMP 2 was destroyed, all you would previously see was AMP 1. Now, AMP 2 is visible but empty, indicating you can build an AMP but currently don’t have one in that slot.
You can now open the menu when playing by using the icon in the top right. Previously you had to use the escape hotkey.
We’ve improved the UI for building an ability on a compartment, improving placement and aesthetics.

Bugs
If you were building a mini-shield on a facility and the facility was destroyed before the task complete, the game would crash. This has now been fixed.
Delayed initialization on a client would cause a crash, this has now been fixed.

A bunch of control, camera, and UI related changes this week, as well as much improved lighting for our Rocky biome maps. All the maps in the game will benefit from this new lighting, but we’re rolling it out over stages to keep our weekly patch size at a reasonable rate. Those who play both Modern Warfare and Miner’s Mettle are probably breathing a sigh of relief.

Gameplay
A new aiming control scheme, that can only be used in conjunction with Click aiming. Direct Targeting removes the camera going back to the aiming unit, so it is much more seamless to pan to a target and have the aiming reticule on the intended target. Thanks to McKaby for the idea!

Graphics
Improved lighting on all our rocky biomes. The other biomes are done and will be put in over time to reduce download sizes.
All the facilities are now lit up, which adds a nice effect to them. This is most noticeable on darker maps, typically the Volcano biomes.

You can see the changes here: https://imgur.com/gallery/MaCM8JM

UI
We’ve added in a loading bar to our loading screen, to give players a better idea of loading progress.
Our cursor has become context sensitive, highlighting when something the cursor is hovering over in the world view can be selected.
We’ve added in a new end game screen, which gives you further information on the game played. We think there’s probably further improvements to be made here but it’s a good improvement from earlier.
Horde Mode has a new UI for when a new wave is incoming. It’s hard to miss!
We’ve prettied up our mission objective UI to be consistent with fonts and font sizes.

Controls
The Escape button now is a hotkey to go back when in menus.
The Escape button now cancels ongoing aiming.

Settings
Added in a Default button to various settings.

Camera
When in free look camera, zooming in no longer adds in a forward shift as well.