Miners Mettle News

Hello,

We're pleased and excited to be announcing the launch date of November 3rd, 2021, for Miner's Mettle full launch (and exit from Early Access). We've been working towards this day since our Early Access entry in May 2020, and even before when we first started work on this game all the way back in September 2017!

Here's some major additions you can expect from Early Access to 1.0:

- The story campaign! 22 missions, 4 factions, fully voiced characters, and a journey through the world of Pentum

- Significantly improved game pacing and balancing

- A new research branch of powerful upgrades that are shared by the factions

- Further graphical improvements all round

- Improvements to the audio and sound effects, as well as an OST with 28 tracks, composed by Chris Shutt

- Horde mode has been improved, with AI that feel less relentlessly robotic and more human-like

- Achievements

Multi-player has been put on the back burner. We don't know if and when we'll be getting back to it, as it requires a very significant amount of work to make it functional. My apologies to those who were excited and waiting for multi-player alongside the single player campaign.

And of course, we'll continue to keep working on Miner's Mettle once we launch. We'll share our plans for post launch content soon after launch.

Thank you!
Ignatius

Hello,

It's been a while since our last communication, and we've been remiss in not giving an update sooner. For that I apologize. Our schedule has slipped quite a bit; we were overly optimistic for too long ("it'll be done end of next week for sure!") and so we thought the best move would be to simply drop 1.0 and say it's here. That's turned out to be a bad strategy as the delay grew longer and longer.

Our delay comes down to our difficulties with the AI (specifically their shooting with accuracy that feels right). It really felt like banging our heads on the wall for weeks on end. We've finally managed to overcome that hurdle, and now feel like we're gearing up for the launch in a couple of week's time (give or take a few days).

We're also not sure if launching during the Summer Sale event makes sense or not, so we're looking into that (assuming we're ready to launch before the Sale event ends) and if it doesn't we'll launch a few days after.

I'll do a better job with communication going forward. We're planning on throwing up a video of one of the campaign missions a few days before launch so people can see what the game is like.

Thanks for your patience!

Ignatius

Hello!

We're inching closer to launch day and 1.0. We're aiming to launch at the very end of April, but if we feel the game would really benefit from some additional polish then we may slip to the first half of May.

It's been about a month since our last scheduled update, and we've been working on our campaign and AI for the most part. The campaign's story, dialogue and voice acting are being locked in, and each mission is in various stages of progress. And of course, we'll be testing them to make sure they're all individually fun.

The AI in our current live version is rudimentary compared to what we're aiming for the AI to be doing in the campaign. Currently, they move and shoot and that's about it. There's little opportunity for back and forth with the AI units as currently in the live build, so we're focusing on improvements there where they feel as close to a human player as we can get it.

The one area we know will be difficult to improve before launch is our multiplayer. We've gone for a p2p system and it's incredibly sensitive to even medium amounts of latency. After sinking a huge amoutn of dev time on it already, it's still not as robust as we wanted it to be. We'll be working to improve upon it post-launch, but I want players who are interested only in multiplayer to have realistic expectations upon launch and would encourage a wait-and-see approach.

We're also currently in a Steam Festival, focusing on games developed in India.

https://store.steampowered.com/sale/indianharvestfestival

Check it out if you haven't already!

This is our last Early Access patch, before launching 1.0 next month in April! We’ve revamped and added in facilities for each faction, adding a new layer of depth to the mechanics. There are pre-requisites for some of the facilities now as well, for example higher level research requires a Research Lab type facility. Check them out!

Gameplay

Each faction now has 8 facilities that they can research for and build. Factions may have facilities which have the same function, while in other cases it may fulfill a similar role but not be the same. Either way, these facilities usually have a different name on a faction-to-faction basis. For example, Iron Strike’s Fleet Garage and Responder’s Mechanicum can both repair units, but when fully upgraded the Fleet Garage can apply a damage reduction buff to docked units while the Mechanicum can activate a fleet of repair drones around it so units in the vicinity can be repaired without needing to dock.

Artillery Emplacements – These are slow projectiles with a small AoE, but what they hit they absolutely hit hard. Great for taking out other facility shields, less good against moving targets.

Radar Towers – These now come with the Watch Tower passive ability, which means they remove a large amount of FoW around themselves. Each faction also come with its own unique ability as well once fully levelled.

Repair Garages – A fully leveled up Repair Garage can build units as well as repair them, allowing you to get units into the fight quickly. Each faction also come with its own unique ability as well once fully levelled.

Research Labs – These are now required to gain access to the higher techs. If you lose your Research Lab, you keep the research already completed or in progress, but you’ll need to rebuild in order to research more.

Shield Generators – These facilities can help regenerate the shields of facilities under attack.

Iron/Platinum/Pentum Mining Platforms – These extract minerals for transport back to HQs, as well as a stream of passive income as well.

Hello!

Thanks for your interest in Miner’s Mettle. We’ve been in Early Access for close to a year now and as we gear up for our full release, we’d like to thank all our players for their feedback and comments that they’ve given us on this journey. It’s been great and a dream come true for us to see people playing our creation. As we are now not so far away from release, we’d like to answer some of the questions that we are frequently asked from interested gamers, as well as release some new information on what you can expect once we have our full release.

If you have any additional questions, please ask them below, or on our Discord.


What kind of game is Miner’s Mettle?
Miner’s Mettle is an artillery-based real time strategy game with elements of base building and logistics.

What kind of games might you compare it to?
While it’s hard to compare Miner’s Mettle as a whole to other games, we do stand on the shoulders of giants. For the artillery combat, we took inspiration from games like Scorched Earth and Worms. A little bit of Supreme Commander for a few things like salvaging and the global view, and we took customizable units from BATTLETECH and other similar mech games. Miner’s Mettle does not play like any of these games specifically, but these are some of our many inspirations.

When will it be released?
We plan on launching in April 2021.

What will it cost?
For the majority of Early Access it cost $20 (for Americans, with other regions getting Steam’s default regional pricing). As we get closer to launch, we are raising the price to $25 to reflect the years’ worth of work we have put in and the additional content. Also, we’d like to have a launch discount, so we must raise the prices in March before the additional content in order to be able to have a launch discount in April (this is due to Steam’s rule of not allowing discounts within 30 days of a price change). If you’re reading this in March, we recommend Wishlisting us and checking us out on launch day!

How long is the game going to be?
The story campaign has 22 missions, and we expect it to take approximately 8 to 10 hours. The campaign takes place entirely on the planet of Pentum, and you will visit icy tundra, parched deserts, tumultuous volcanos and stony landscapes.



What is the backstory of the campaign?
It is the 28th century, and humans have made tentative steps across the stars. While there are now 8 habitable colonies, space travel is still slow, dangerous and expensive. On the isolated mining planet of Pentum, a new mineral is discovered. Some experimentation shows this mineral could potentially be used as the fuel for faster-than-light travel, which would dramatically change the speed and intensity of the spread of humans across the stars. The only known source of this mineral is the planet of Pentum. As the price of this mineral skyrockets, and where there’s a profit to be made, greed follows soon after…

Are there different campaigns for each faction?
No. You don’t play as a faction but rather a person, Roland Derecho; an ex-artillery officer who is drifting through life after being discharged and finds himself on the isolated mining planet of Pentum working for his cousin. You will experience and play the different factions during different missions, but always as Roland.

Can I change the character I play?
No. Roland is the only playable character in Miner’s Mettle’s campaign.

Do you only control one unit? Do you need to tell each unit to fire individually?
You control multiple units. Each faction has a different max capacity, but each faction will let you control multiple units. You’ll also build and control multiple facilities. Yes, you do need to aim and fire for each unit as aim is a big part of the gameplay. We do not want to have a game that makes players rely on high APM to be successful, and as such there is a low max unit cap (in single digits for all factions), and cooldowns are fairly high.

Are the units customizable?
Yes, researching new technologies allows you to build new devices for your units, as well as new facilities and other tools. Each faction has their own unique pool of abilities, and then there is a shared pool as well.

What else can you tell us about units?
Units, known as AMPs (Armoured Mining Platforms) are quite versatile. They hold an artillery cannon and a recon surveying device as default abilities. You can attach a number of compartments to AMPs, which increase their armour (health) but decrease their speed. Each compartment can either stay empty to haul resources, or you can install devices which grant the AMPs abilities to use. By choosing the combination of compartments and devices installed therein, you can customize the unit to fulfill whatever role you choose for it on the battlefield.

How does resource collection work?
AMPs need to gather minerals and bring them back to headquarters for processing and use. The AMPs can either mine it themselves, a risky proposition as they are sitting ducks in the meanwhile, or invest resources and build a mining platform, which will extract resources and store them, until an AMP with empty compartments shows up, loads them on, and takes them back to HQ. A mining platform will also have some drones who will transport resources automatically to HQ, so mining platforms grant a passive stream of resources as well.

How many factions are there?
There are four factions to play as. Kylian Conglomerate are a massive corporation and an economic powerhouse, Iron Strike are a famous mercenary company and have strong fighting experience, The Responders are the militant arm of a theocratic nation and their zealous natures burn bright, and The Zed Initiative are the research wing of an ancient and obscure religion and their inquisitive minds are quick to grasp the potential of Pentum.

Is there base building?
There is facility building; but you cannot build anywhere you’d like. Instead, each map has buildable spots, where a unit can dock at and build a facility. So clustering facilities together around your headquarters is not an option. At resource nodes, the attached buildable spot can only build the appropriate mining platform to extract that resource.



What engine is the game built in?
Miner’s Mettle runs on Unreal Engine 4.

What are the system requirements for the game?
Our minimum specs ask for an Intel i3 processor, a NVIDIA GTX 750ti, 8GB of RAM, and 40GB of HDD space (the space requirements may change).

Will there be microtransactions?
Absolutely not. We do hope that the game does well enough for us to be able to make DLC that offers additional content like a new campaign, or a new faction or similar.

What have you added in during your year of Early Access?
We have made large strides from the launch of Early Access. Some of this progress will not be seen until we exit Early Access and do our full launch. Based off player feedback as well as our own plans, we have:
• Worked on the single player campaign
• Added in dozens of abilities
• Improved the AI to feel more human like and provide an enjoyable challenge
• Made each faction more distinct
• Salvaging mechanics
• Added in weather effects
• Improved visuals and lighting
• Added in many more sound effects
• Significantly improved the camera and controls, as well as various customizable settings
• Cloud saving
• Colour blind mode

Where can I see the unedited gameplay?
We will post videos on our YouTube channel, as well as recorded streams on our Steam Store page before our full release so you can get a better sense of gameplay.

Can I stream the game?
Of course!

What game modes are there in the game?
We are planning to launch with the story campaign, and a horde mode.

Is there multiplayer? Do you have dedicated servers?
Yes. We already have both versus and co-op multiplayer. However, our focus is on the single player campaign and we know we will launch with many multiplayer bugs. If you are primarily interested in buying Miner’s Mettle for multiplayer, I’d recommend waiting until later. We do apologize, but we’re a small team and we must prioritize. We do not have dedicated servers, and multiplayer uses P2P.

Will there be mods, or a map editor?
This is not currently planned. If things go well then, we’d like to be able to devote time into making them possible, but as of now we’ll need to see how well the game does.

What platforms will it be available on?
We’re releasing on PC only. We don’t plan to release on consoles.

Can I play using a gamepad/mouse/keyboard?
We designed the controls with only keyboard + mouse in mind. We felt there were too many hotkeys for gamepad playing to be considered viable, but if there’s a strong demand for it post-release we could try to make gamepads usable.

If you can think of any additional questions you’d like answered, let us know below and we can add the answers to this FAQ.

Thank you!