Mainframe Defenders News

MELTDOWN UPDATE

This big update is designed to rework those aspects of the game that were not working, improve balance, add new content, and make the UI more convenient.

New content:
- New mission types: Activate The Defense, Matter Raid, and Destroy Maintenance Station.
- Tier 3 with new opponents: Operator, Assailant, Pest, Hellkite, and Forge.
- New player units: Viper B and Vulcan B.
- New mechanics: Return Fire. Some weapons have the ability to perform return fire a limited number of times per turn. This is no different from a regular shot, but a weapon cannot return fire if the enemy is outside the firing range. The return fire does not require AP but adds heat. Several weapons with this ability do stack.
- A new level of difficulty: "Very easy." At this level of difficulty, the player’s units get a 20 hull bonus.
- 17 new items, including a rare version of existing items.
- Added 14 Steam achievements.
- Added support for Steam cloud saves.

Reworked content:
- The following missions have been reworked: Download Data and Destroy the Infected Node.
- Internal Damage effect now deals 25% of max health as damage. Previously, it did not differ much from the Corrosion effect. This gives Internal Damage effect its own flavor.
- Allied AI improved. Now, allies are less likely to block narrow passages and try not to attack targets that will be dead on the next turn due to status effects.
- Player unit upgrades slightly reworked.
- Arawn B and Oppressor B have other starting items.
- Corridors in all missions now have more space.
- Some items such as MER-12 and the Moritz Gun were reworked to use new mechanics.
- Opponents applying Corrosion effects now apply Corruption instead (Each effect deals 1 damage per unit of this effect, ignoring armor). This new status effect is easier to deal with, as it loses stacks each turn.
- All Prop. Damaged effects applied by the player units have been replaced by Immobility effects. This is a new status effect that is a more useful replacement for Porp. Damaged, making opponents exposed to attacks. Opponents are still using old Prop. Damaged effects.
- Overlord rework. Status effects are now his main weakness because he can no longer get rid of them on his own. Instead, he learned to shoot back up to 2 times per turn, which makes him dangerous for teams that depend too much on direct damage and have poor positioning.

Item Balance:
- The T1 store cannot have rare items. Instead, rare items are guaranteed in the T3 store.
- T1 missions cannot have rare items as rewards. Instead, rare items are guaranteed as rewards in the T3 missions.
- Item unlocks require fewer research points.

Opponent Balance:
- Enhancers can no longer add more than one item and cannot add a Nullifier.
- When the opponent squad wakes up prematurely, the wake-up counter is reset.

Bug fixes/other improvements:
- You can see how many improvements the unit has in the squad management menu and unit info panel during battle.
- Text and UI color is changed to be easier on the eyes.
- New game menu rework.
- Fixed a bug causing opponents to shoot 1 tile further than they should.
- Added range of fire preview mode (by default, the Q button).
- The planned damage is calculated more correctly. The damage value is shown in the tooltip.
- Key bindings (finally!).

If there are any bugs left, please let me know, I will try to fix them ASAP. Thanks for your support and I hope you'll enjoy this update! =D

I've also added a one-week 25% discount starting on May 28th.

Hello everyone and welcome to the final Meltdown update dev diary!

One of the significant features of this update will be the addition of Tier 3. This tier is smaller compared to other tiers, but it comes with a set of 4 unique enemies and 2 new compositions. Those enemies use some new mechanics. For example, one of these enemies, Assailant, can fire right back at your units once per turn. And Assailant inherits Acarid's ability to boost its attack after each shot, making this foe deadly if not handled correctly. And of course, you can give enemies taste of their own medicine by equipping brand new weapons with return fire yourself.
Of course, Tier 3 is not the only addition to the game. Overall, I've added 15+ new items (mostly rare versions of existing ones) and reworked some of the old ones. The update also contains 14 achievements and Steam cloud save support, among many other improvements to the game.
One such improvement is Internal Damage rework. It was inspired by Orla's suggestion, and now it deals 25% of the target's max health as damage, giving this status effect own identity that it previously lacked.
Propulsion Damaged was another effect that I was not happy with. It was great when used by enemies, limiting player squad mobility, but it was not that useful against the enemy. So I've made a special version of that effect for player: Immobilize. This one completely disables movement, preventing enemy tanks from reaching your most vulnerable units and helping you to pin down retreating enemies.
The game progression received some overhauls as well. You can no longer get rare items on T1, but you'll get more uncommon items on T2 with one rare item guaranteed on each T3 mission (except Matter Raid). The shop is also updated to follow these rules.



The Meltdown update will be available on May 27th. Thanks for your support and I hope you'll enjoy the update!

Hello everyone and welcome to the Mainframe Defenders dev diary!

Overall, I think the base game had a solid UI and I hope you can agree with me =) But of course there is always room for improvement. I've changed some parts of the UI based on your feedback and added some extra stuff. One such feature is key binding. This will also show some of the more obscure hotkeys, like zooming in and out and cycling between squad units. I've also added the ability to see upgrade level in squad menu, weapon range highlight for player and enemies, and improved "planned damage" calculation. The latter now shows numerical damage values and correctly predicts damage for units that clear status effects. The new game menu also got a rework: now you don't have to click on a unit preset to see the starting items, and units are now split by upgrade family. You can see the results on this screenshot:



Hopefully, this will improve your gaming experience! I'll see you in the next dev diary, where I will talk about Tier 3.

Hello and welcome to the Mainframe Defenders dev diary!

Those of you who played Mainframe Defenders probably have noticed a lack of mission variety. The missions indeed were barely different from one another. After all, this is a game focused on combat, and there are only so many different ways of saying "kill all enemies". But the main difference is in the details. So, I've tried to make each mission type fell a bit more unique, even if some of them provide similar challenges.
I've started with some reworks of existing mission types:

* DOWNLOAD DATA: You don't have to kill every single unit on this mission now. Once you've obtained the data, you'll need to return your squad to the room you've spawned in. The enemy will be waiting for you there, though. And every squad on this mission will have an Armored Spider in an attempt to slow you down.
* DESTROY INFECTED NODE: Now Infected Node applies Interference on your units each turn. But enemies that are immune to status effects can't spawn during this mission.

As of right now, I can also confirm 3 new mission types:
* DESTROY THE MAINTENANCE STATION: Your target is an infected repair station and some fabricators. There are two things that are unique to this mission type: enemies can retreat to repair and units spawned by fabricators guard the repair station instead of blindly charging at you.
* REACTIVATE THE DEFENSE: There are powerful allied Centurions (new unit) you need to activate. Once you do, you'll need to destroy enemy reinforcements.
* MATTER RAID: In this mission, you need to collect at least 3 out of 5 matter chests and then escape. Each time you collect a chest, the enemy receives reinforcement. A very high risk and reward mission that can provide a lot of matter for your upgrading needs =)

Also, a small change: Mainframe AI Core will now narrate some parts of the mission.



Those changes should hopefully make missions feel a bit more unique. But that is it for today! Stay tuned for new dev diaries.

Mainframe Defenders: Meltdown Update Announced!



Hi everyone, ShiftyCode here!
Since the release, I've been listening to the feedback our community provided. I've accumulated some fresh ideas and I've been working for some time on a massive free update for everyone. And today, I am happy to finally announce Mainframe Defenders: Meltdown Update!
I'll post more details (including the release date) in upcoming Dev Diaries. Meanwhile, here is what to expect of it:

- Mission variety. You guys rightfully pointed out that missions get stale pretty fast. To combat this, I am working on at least 3 new mission types, alongside with reworks of existing ones. More on that in the next dev diary!
- QoL improvements. Key bindings, UI tweaks, etc. New color pallet that should be easier on the eyes.
- Reworks. Some underused mechanics and stuff with identity crisis will be reworked. Internal damage is too similar to corrosion? Heat builds are forcing you to use Plasma Residue? This (and a lot more) is going to be fixed!
- New items and mechanics to play with!
- New player units with unique upgrades.
- Updated demo version.

This is by no means a full list. There is some other stuff in the Meltdown Update that will be announced later, so stay tuned for Dev Diaries!