Mech Armada News

- Fix Forest map being in the incorrect location
- Fix visual artifacts highlighting the paths in Campaign Map
- Fix names not being applied properly in Unit Screen
- Fix Intro leaving the Main Menu in a bad state when launched from Settings
- Fix tooltip sometimes snapping incorrectly after unit is attacked

Hi Everyone,

It's time for another big juicy update. There's so much new that this is going to be a long post.


I know many of you like to play with a gamepad controller. With 0.12 I've implemented full gamepad controls for Mech Armada. You can navigate menus, command your units, and generally do everything you can do with mouse and keyboard.

The game will switch automatically between mouse+keyboard and gamepad controls as soon as you press either a key or a button, and refresh the screen showing you the correct prompts.

Thanks to Steam you can use not only an Xbox controller but also a PS4 or PS5 one (see here for details). Mech Armada won't detect your gamepad type automatically right now, but you can change it in settings to get the correct buttom prompts everywhere.



Furthermore, both gamepad buttons and keyboard mappings are configurable now in settings.

I've done my best to make Mech Armada as intuitive to play with a controller as it's possible for a turn-based tactics game. I'd love to hear what you think!





You may have noticed a common request has been added: there is now a hotkey to End Turn 👀👀👀


With the addition of Achievements I'm hoping to add new ways to play Mech Armada.

Besides the typical achievements you get for beating the game, I've tried to have a varied mix of challenges that will make you approach each run differently, like beating the game using only 1 mech, or using only tutorial parts. And on top of that, there are a few "secret" achievements that are for you to figure out...

You can see full list with the 30 achievements here.




As part of adding gamepad support I had to touch every screen in the game. So I used the opportunity to clean up the look a little bit.

Here's an example of a screen that was also causing confusion as it wasn't clear that by pressing the button you were buying a random part (some people thought they were just seeing their options):



I've even updated the logo, to give it a more modern look. I hope you like it:



Even though Mech Armada is designed with a standard aspect ratio of 16:9 in mind, I wanted to provide the best possible experience for people running in all aspect ratios and resolution, ranging from 1024x768 all the way to 5120×2160 and more.

For Ultrawide the main improvement is to adjust the camera so it shows as much of the battlefield as possible, while taking advantage of the extra width. In 4:3 the goal was to avoid assets clipping, as everything gets a little squished together.

Note that I don't actually have the hardware to properly test all of this, so do let me know if you run into any issues.


A lot of people have some kind of color blindness which can make it difficult to play games that rely on color. Whenever possible, I always use symbols on top of color, but certain areas like the area indicators on the map can't benefit from that. And so you run into issues like this:



You could always select the color of your mechs, but to fully solve this issue, the colors you need during gameplay are now also configurable:




And of course, not everything is going to be technical stuff. In 0.12 I'm introducing a new enemy as well as both a new part and a changed one.

[h2]Gazer[/h2]
You'll have to keep an eye on the Gazer. With a powerful laser that rivals your raygun it has incredible range. But get up close and personal and he'll deploy the sting - with armor piercing!



[h2]New Zapper[/h2]
The Zapper has been modified and turned into a chain-reaction weapon, that will spread from one monster to the next, so you can create awesome combos.



[h2]Freezer[/h2]
The Freezer replaces the stun functionality that was previously in the Zapper, literally freezing an enemy for a turn so they can't move or attack.




If you remember, I like to use data to balance the game. I had a feeling that with some of the changes in the last few updates the game had gotten a bit easier: there are more resources on the Campaign Map, monsters will not spawn in a big cluster anymore and, in general, you have more choice about which encounters to fight and how to do it.

As a result, looking at the win rates for a run, they had gone up quite a bit in the last two updates. I feel it's important to keep a healthy amount of challenge in the game, so I've reduced the amount of energy you get after a battle by 1 (you can still use improvements to increase this) and I have added a few more enemies to the battles, so you'll have a bit of a tougher fight after the first environment.


Yes, there are even more improvements and fixes. Here's a list:

• Picking a duplicate part will now increase your number of uses
  
• You can edit your starting Mechs directly from the Science Lab
  
• Campaign Map part tooltips will also show upgrades
  
• Many other bug fixes
  

Phew! That was a lot of work, I hope you enjoy it. I will be posting my plans for full release pretty soon, it's going to be exciting, and I have some cool stuff to show.
As usual, if you have any feedback about these changes, be sure to join our Discord or hit the forums. I'm always available to chat about the game.
I hope you enjoy this update!

/Sergio

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1389360/Mech_Armada/

Here at Lioncode Games we think it's incredibly important to support other small studios, so we thought we'd run our first cross promotion.

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Black Geyser is set in Yerengal, a world where dark gods have brought nothing but venality and greed. For centuries, the Devil-god Rothgor has spread fear and terror, waging war upon the mortal races. Eventually banished, the nation of Isilmerald has enjoyed a time of peace and prosperity. Yet discontent has begun to fester once more, and a bloody civil war is brewing between the capital Isilbright and the wealthy mining town of Deron-Guld.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Like any classic isometric CRPG, life starts out at the character creator. There’s 5 playable races (Human, Dwarf, Elf, Feldegug and Rillow) and 13 unique classes, from 4 unique class groups (Priest, Outlaw, Warrior, and Wizard). Each plays completely different from the other and there’s enough here to suit all styles. After tinkering on the attribute screen (time to panic over those points!), you’re dropped into a world that’s plagued by pestilence and mysterious abductions. Without wishing to spoil the story, it’s your job to uncover the hidden legacy of your birth, across a world you’re free to explore.

Since its Early Access and over the last seven months, Black Geyser has taken the time to improve almost all areas of its game. The entire purpose of getting the game into the hands of players as soon as possible was clearly to refine its vision, identify problem areas and put them right. Having delivered over 20 huge updates, including Mac and Linux support, Black Geyser has made sweeping changes. From vastly improved loading times, to clearer player tutorials, improved crafting, new zones, enemies and questlines, the small development team have ensured they've focused on addressing and reacting to key player feedback.



As a CRPG with a large open world with dozens of unique locations, exploring, interacting with NPC’s and managing Black Geyser’s tactical-combat-with pause is key. Just like most party-based titles of old, you’ll need to recruit key allies, discover their motivations, choose your formations and deck them out in any weapons and armor you can lay your hands on, whether that’s from taking on epic bosses, or stealing from a nearby inn (just don’t get caught by the guards).

Black Geyser is undoubtedly a challenging experience, but first and foremost it puts its story and unique greed mechanic at the center. The choices you make will either advance the cause of the Goddess of Greed, or maintain the flame of hope to impact directly on the game world. Yerengal is brimming with content to discover, with varied grim biomes that have plenty of atmosphere that are filled with dangers. If you camp for the night, there’s every chance you’ll be ambushed. If you stray too far from the beaten track, don’t be surprised if you encounter enemies waiting to smash you to a pulp.

With a branching narrative spanning more than 300,000 lines of text and multiple endings, there’s more than 60 hours of content available here, not including all the side quests and secrets to uncover. Scratching that old school itch is the name of Black Geyser’s game, and with future launch plans set to bring pets, strongholds and additional content, its launch this week is only the beginning.
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https://store.steampowered.com/app/1374930/Black_Geyser_Couriers_of_Darkness/

- Fix for hang when there are no parts available to roll

Hi Everyone,

After the last update and having the game on sale we're not slowing down. 0.11 brings another massive change and one that many of you have been asking and waiting for since the beginning: a Campaign Map.


Up until this point, runs were completely linear: you'd fight a battle after another with no choice in the matter. Now, after each battle you'll see the full map with all the interweaving paths to get to the boss - and you get to choose which boss you want to face!

Besides different types of battles, the map features all kinds of rewards: energy, credits, meta-energy and even parts. So, if you see a part you like, you can make your way to it, by you may have to face those annoying Hoppers over there to get to it!



The interface in the campaign map is basically the same as in a battle. You move on a grid, one square at a time, until you reach either of the bosses. But be careful, because you can't backtrack!
After beating the boss you'll advance to the next environment, with new challenges.

Something important to mention is that if you were in the middle of a run in 0.10, you can safely continue using the previous linear structure until the run ends. Your next run will then use the Campaign Map. This applies both to the regular campaign and the sandbox.


Now that the Campaign Map is the landing screen in the Mech Armada Control Center, the screen with your list of Mech Blueprints is gone, and replaced with a view of your real Mechs.

I know that some of you found it a bit difficult to see your Mechs in the pre-battle view, so now you have a much clearer camera and you can switch back and forth between that and the whole-battlefield one.



And of course you can still fully edit your Blueprints at any point (even during battle) using the Spawn panel on the left.


The other noticeable change you'll see is that the Credit Machine will only provide 5 credits (instead of 7) as a baseline. You can now find credits on the Campaign Map and you'll also need fewer as you can also collect parts there free of charge. Besides, you can use meta-energy to improve the Credit Machine and the ceiling has been raised so it can reach 10 (though at a high cost).

The ceiling for the Power Generator and the Starting Energy improvements have also been increased slightly.

Another change I want to discuss explicitly is nerfing the Shield and the Energy Shield. In 0.11 every time you get attacked they will lose 1 armor until the end of the battle. The reason for this change is that shields would provide perfect protection against most of the Swarm, especially at low challenge levels, making the run almost trivial and not very fun. Now you have to worry a bit more about receiving hits, even if you don't suffer damage.

Lastly, a list of smaller fixes:

• Updated Tutorial to teach both Blueprints and Transform
  
• Tutorial will now correctly always use default parts (ignoring Starting Parts)
  
• Settings button moved to the top-right corner in Main Menu for consistency
  
• Fix Echo upgrade formatting error
  
• Bosses now consume meta-energy when walking over it
  
• Energy Pods no longer have a collection animation at the end of battle when empty
  
• You no longer get 1 energy with Harvesting at the end of battle if the Pod is empty
  
• Icon added to the Survive/Defeat text
  
• Salvage no longer affects landmines or drones
  
• Energy wasted removed from stats
  
• Fix number of runs in stats (it wasn't including aborted runs)
  
• Fix cooldown for the second weapon when transforming a dual-wielding mech
  

With every update I feel like Mech Armada is getting better. It's also getting closer to full release and we'll have some exciting announcements soon, so stay tuned.
If you have any feedback about these changes, be sure to join our Discord or hit the forums. I'm always available to chat about the game.
I hope you enjoy this update!

/Sergio

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1389360/Mech_Armada/