Mainframe Defenders News

Hello, this is ShiftyCode. It is time for the next dev diary for the anniversary 1.3 update. Even though the player builds are at the heart of the game, those builds would be pointless without some fun enemies. And the enemies can be a bit lacking if you've mastered the game. Some enemies did not create enough threat, even under the right circumstances. There are also some rather pointless enemies that have to be reworked, replaced, or removed. For example, spiders are pretty pointless. They barely pose a threat and die to everything.
But the main reason for those changes is to partially address abuse builds. Every enemy can still be countered, but your squad needs to be well-balanced in the types of damage it provides =)
So there is a list of changes so far:

Fundamental changes:
Status effects:
- Status effects mechanics changed: some status effects can now have a set amount of turns before expiration. This solves the issue of player mechs having 10 stacks of "Propulsion Damaged" and limping along for the rest of the mission. The duration is refreshed upon adding new stacks though!
- Propulsion Damaged and Interference now only lasts 3 turns, regardless of stack amount.
- Corrupted Data rework. It lasts for 2 turns now, but prevents any healing and can't be cleansed. This gives this status effect a unique place in the game, adding a new threat type.
- Damaged Sensor rework. Lasts 2 turns and limits the max damage from weapons. Crit builds, beware =D!
- New status effect: Unstable Current. Lasts 2 turns and reduces weapon damage by 5 per stack. It is introduced as a proper active counter to burst fire builds.
- New status effect: Lingering Heat. Applies a minor amount of heat (per stack, maybe?), but can't be cleaned at all. Still working on the numbers for this one =D
- Player units utilize Improved Interference that cuts damage by 50%.

Enemies:
- Dominator Armor. This armor sets a limit on how much damage the owner can take in a single instance. This counters single crit shot builds and mass corrosion, but leaves the unit vulnerable to other builds.
- Nullifiers, be gone! There is no complete status effect immunity for enemies, only partial. New Isolated Internals item cuts 50% of any status effects damage. This should be enough to discourage players from focusing the wrong target, yet will allow finishing a wounded Sentinel with status effects.
- Pretorians now have the aforementioned Dominator Armor and got the T2 variant.
- Armored Spiders and Suppressors have Isolated Internals to make them tankier against status effects.
- Adaptive armor (used by Bulwarks and Suppressors) now applies Unstable Current to the attackers, countering burst fire more effectively than before.
- Suppressors lost the ability to apply Interference.
- Orions now apply Unstable Current and Lingering Heat on the attack. They've got more armor, and apply heat to the attackers.
- Devastators have fancy Dominator Armor and increase main gun damage by 1 each turn. Featuring a new T3 model as well.
- Overlord applies Interference on attacks and has status effects damage reduction.
- Operators lost armor.
- Assailant has 50% status effect damage reduction.
- Spiders, enhancers, Hive and Sharpshooter removed, for now. At least until I can rework them.

This is not a complete list of changes. I am currently testing the game extensively in order to make sure those changes will make the game more fun =)
Next time, I will talk about a fancy new system that will replace Enhancers.

Thanks for your attention and see you next time!

Hello, this is ShiftyCode, and today I would like to talk a bit about the future updates for the game. Thanks to your feedback I was able to better understand some of the issues the game has. Which was great, because when you playtest your game for hundreds of hours, it can become quite difficult to even remember why your game is fun in the first place =D

So, I've decided to bundle all ideas that I have for one big update. Let me share some of the things the update going to include:
- Balance update. Some builds are still quite OP and need to be nerfed and playtested more thoroughly this time. Immobilize builds, Internal Damage, and certain heat builds, in particular, going to be targeted.
- Item reworks. New content without bloating the game any further! Items that don't quite have a place in the game gonna get reworked/buffed. For example (but not limited to), Javelin, Heat Sinks, and Broadsword are all going to be more viable and interesting options. Broadsword for example now going to be one of few items that still can Immobilize enemies.
- QOL. I've received several requests to rename and color units. You guys obviously care, so why not =)?
- Enemies reworks. Scorpions are no longer invulnerable to status effects! But they do cut 50% of status effect damage. Armored Spiders that lacked tankiness now also cut 25% of status effect damage. Even though you've never brought that up, I can almost feel the distaste for Nullifiers on enemies =D Enhancers can now also add upgrades with this function to random enemies.
- New enemies. Or at least one. T3 always felt that it could use some new enemies. I don't want to add more enemies for the sake of adding fore enemies, but I've come up with an interesting mechanic for it. If I could come up with more enemies - I will gladly add more =)

This is not a complete list, but it gives an idea of what to expect from the update. The ETA for the update is February 2021.

Thanks to everyone for your support! I'll try to keep rolling the updates as long as there is interest in the game. Speaking of which, if you guys could namedrop the game in the discussions or recommend it to your favorite streamers who might enjoy it - this could help to keep up the interest =)

New info for Brazil and Portugal! We are launching Portuguese localization (note: not Brazilian Portuguese). Not so long ago, our game was invited to the Indie X 2020 exhibition and we've decided to make a Portuguese translation for the occasion.

Thank you for supporting the game! Stay tuned for more updates.

1.2 Content update

New content:
- New player units: Shiva A and Shiva B.
- New item type: squad upgrades.
- 13 new squad upgrade items.
- 5 new support themed items.
- 2 new strategic tiles: Suppression Field and Repair Gel.
- Strategic tiles have different effects on destruction (except for repair stations).

Reworked content:
- Starting matter amount increased to 300.
- Mission rewards increased.
- Missions amount decreased from 20 to 15 total missions.
- Acid Suppressor reworked to be different from Morana.

Item Balance:
- Rare and uncommon items should appear more often as mission rewards.