Mech Armada News

Hi Everyone,

First, I want to wish you all Happy Holidays and a Happy New Year.

This has been an incredible year for Mech Armada, with our Early Access release in August. I really appreciate your continued feedback and support this year - literally none of this would be possible without all of you.

The next update will be in early 2022. I'm taking some time to spend with my family and charge my batteries because 2022 is going to be even more amazing. I'm ready to promise that Mech Armada will have a full launch (out of Early Access) next year, before the summer. And there's still a lot of work to do! Before then you'll get:

• World map - so you can choose your own path
  
• New environments
  
• Story progression beyond the current final boss fight
  
• Full controller support
  
• Localization
  
• New parts and monsters
  
• And many other surprises
  

I hope you are as excited as I am about what's to come. As an appetizer, here's a GIF of a boss I'm currently working on:



/Sergio

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

Hi Everyone,

Today, I'm delighted to announce that Mech Armada has sold 5,000 copies!

A huge thank you to everyone who's supported the game. I really couldn't do this without all of you.

To celebrate this milestone, I created this video summarizing the biggest updates we've released since launching in Early Access back in August.

Many more to come before our full release. I hope you enjoy it.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

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

Hi Everyone,

In my quest to add variety to the game, I've been working on the types of battles. This is a stepping stone into what will finally become a campaign map that will let you choose your path. For now, the new battle types will appear randomly during a run so you can experience them. I feel they nicely change the flavor of the gameplay and add some new strategic options.

Beside this, there are a number of changes that follow directly from player feedback and that make the game even more flexible, improve quality of life and reduce frustration. Needless to say, I'm excited about this update!

And if that wasn't enough, I'm discounting the game for the next two weeks by 20%. This is our largest discount to date!


[h2]Larger Map[/h2]
The first variation in battles involves taking some of the learnings from the Halloween Event about larger maps and applying them to the campaign. These larger battles won't be as long as in Halloween but they are twice as big as regular ones and they give you more opportunities for approaching them tactically and taking your time.


[h2]Survival[/h2]
The other battle type is a survival battle. You need to defend against the Swarm for 5 turns, and then you win and move to the next battle. Be aware though, the Swarm will get reinforcements continuously, so you'll have to find the right balance between reducing their numbers and protecting yourself.




Another new piece of content is a new boss for the City environment. Quake is just as big and scary as the others, but he also has a long distance attack that is hard to avoid.



Quake will appear instead of Goliath 50% of the time.

Transform was added in 0.4 and I think it revolutionized how you manage your Mechs and improve them over time. However, because transforming was limited to the Blueprints that you had defined, it often led to creating "intermediate" blueprints, so you could build up your Mech team as you slowly gathered energy.

In this update whenever you press the Transform button, you'll now get the full Mech editor. You can change whatever you want, you only pay for the new parts you add and you can do that at any point. This change has the potential to be transformative (get it?).




Lastly, this is a feature that has been requested a lot. Many of you wanted to see the map before a battle starts, so you can prepare appropriately. In 0.8 you can do that.

Believe it or not, there was a reason for obscuring the map. In my mind, it was like being dealt a random hand in a deckbuilder - you just wasn't sure what to expect at the beginning. However, it became clear that the downside was that too much uncertainty hurt the strategic planning, so now you have full visibility on what's coming.



To conclude, a few extra fixes that made it into this build:

• Improved lighting at Low quality (selectable in Settings)
  
• Ideal quality/performance is now automatically detected based on a quick benchmark when the game starts for the first time. It can be changed in Settings.
  
• Fix Sandbox runs interfering with the regular campaign
  

If you liked this update please leave a positive review and a big thank you to all of you who have already - it does make a difference. And if you would like to chat with me, the best way to do it is to join our Discord - plus you can get all the upcoming changes before anyone else in the beta branch.

/Sergio

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

Hi Everyone,

In this update I want to address one of the areas where I've received a lot of feedback. Many of you are asking for some flexibility to change the starting Mechs, as well as some control over which parts can drop in a run. In 0.7 you get both.


While I completely understand the desire to choose which parts you get during a run, there has to be some variability, or the gameplay will become stale. The solution? Decks.

After you reach 1,000 keys (get keys by winning battles) you can choose which parts are available to drop during a run, and which ones won't. You still don't know exactly which ones you'll get, but if there are some you really don't like you can completely avoid them. You can save up to 4 different decks, and switching between them is very easy.




Even before 0.1 I knew I wanted to add some options for you to configure the Mechs you start with (unlike in games like Slay the Spire, where you always start with the same cards). The only question was how to do that without compromising the variety of the runs: if you always have the same parts, runs will start to feel the same.

The solution has been to attach a credit cost to switching parts. Then there's a strategy to the starting pars. You can select a few parts you really like and rely on basic parts for the rest, or make do with whatever drops randomly (based on the deck you set up) or even start with very few parts and get a bigger random collection. The current costs are susceptible to change based on feedback.




A couple more changes that are interesting to discuss:

• Halloween event has ended, for now. Expect parts of it to come back in the future in some form.
  
• The energy cap has been raised (after improvements). The new maximum is now 40 (used to be 20). You should get the new increased value based on how many improvements you've got.
  
• Sandbox is now accessible from the Main Menu, and you can have a sandbox run and a regular run at the same time.
  
• Beating the final boss will now award you an extra 200 keys.
  
• Running the tutorial will force you to use the original Mech team, otherwise "bad things" can happen.
  
• Added Frame Rate Limit in Graphics Settings
  
• Bunch of small fixes
  

As you saw in the post about data, I've been analyzing the game to find balance issues. This has resulted in a few tweaks, mostly along these lines:

• Lower the damage done by the Swarm at basic difficulty. This should result in fewer one-hit-kills and make the health economy more viable (relying on surviving hits and healing).
  
• Reduce the buff stacking somewhat, in particular for guns with buffs that lasted 2 turns. Because this was so over-powered, people were feeling frustrated when they couldn't get these combinations.
  
• Increase the toughness of the Swarm at higher difficulty. Some really good players have been showing me the game is not challenging enough for them...
  

Here's the detailed list of changes:
[h3]Swarm Damage[/h3]

• Deathstalker, Snapper, Rhinotaur, Arthropod, Toad, Hopper, Carapace, Moth, Sandworm Larva damage reduced
  
• Hound, Centipede damage reduced in challenge 0, increased in challenge 9+
  
• Wrecker, Tetrapod, Basilisk, Blob do more damage in challenge 3+
  
• Pincer damage adjusted
  
• Reaper damage increased
  
• Tyrant, Scourge Larva, Wimp damage increased in challenge 9+
  

[h3]Swarm Health[/h3]

• Crawler, Wrecker, Deathstalker, Hornet, Arachnid, Pincer, Scourge, Tetrapod, Centipede, Arthropod, Basilisk, Bullhead, Carapace, Reaper, Wimp, Moth and Sandworm Larva gain more health in challenge 2+
  

[h3]Swarm Other[/h3]

• Hopper can't dodge Neutralizer anymore
  
• Tetrapod can only move 2 tiles in challenge 2, still 3 in challenge 8+
  

[h3]Mech Parts[/h3]

• Gatling gun energy cost raised to 8
  
• Fighter Drone energy cost raised to 6
  
• Medic Drone energy cost raised to 5
  
• Drone 2.0 damage nerfed to 3-4
  
• Bullseye damage bonus is now 3 (4 after upgrade)
  
• Armor Gun 2.0 gives 7 armor for 1 turn
  
• Damage Gun gives 2 damage, Damage Gun 2.0 gives 3 damage for 1 turn
  
• Missile Pod and Mega Missile Pod now have 1-turn cooldown
  
• Chain Reaction only gets an extra action after a kill once
  
• Commando, Eagle Eye and Protector have cross-shaped adjacency until upgraded
  
• Eagle Eye upgrade no longer grants extra range to the Mech itself
  

And as usual a reminder to join our Discord if you want to get these changes before anyone else, and if you're enjoying the game I'd really appreciate it if you could leave a positive review if you haven't already.

/Sergio

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

Hi Everyone,

Balancing a tactics game like Mech Armada with lots of parts and monsters is not an easy task. There are some rules of thumb you can use during development to try to get things right but, at the end of the day, the proof is in the pudding. You need to look at how people are playing the game, and whether or not it matches your design and expectations. That’s what we’re doing today.

A quick note about gathering data. Yes, Mech Armada collects gameplay data. No, I’m not going to be emailing you spam: I don’t have your email address, your name or anything personal.

Ah, and I'm going to discuss some of the fights (including boss fights) and parts you need to unlock. So if you don't want spoilers come back after playing a bit more.

With that out of the way, let’s look at some data.

[h2]Winning Battles[/h2]
The most important number is how often are players winning battles. Win every battle and you’ll reach the end of the game (beating the Demon). Of course this is tightly connected to the challenge level.

Overall, 4.5% of runs end in victory at Challenge 0. If you look only at people who’ve unlocked all the parts (you’d expect those people have been playing longer and have more experience) the number goes up to 13%.

Now the highest Challenge level is 12. The game is a LOT harder. At the same time, only players who are really good at the game are typically going to try the hardest mode. The result? 10% of Challenge 12 runs end in victory. That’s higher than the base for Challenge 0 but less than the number for experienced players.

So the next question is, where are people actually dying? While there is a small chance of losing every single battle, for the most part the bosses are causing the most trouble. Here are the chances of surviving a boss fight at Challenge 0:

• 76% vs Goliath
  
• 81% vs Scourge Leader
  
• 50% vs Spider Queen
  
• 90% vs Sandworm
  
• 68% vs Demon
  

Clearly, the Spider Queen battle is currently a problem. Ideally the win percentage should be closer to the 80% the other battles have. The Demon being a bit lower is ok – he’s the final boss and he’s supposed to be tough. On the other hand, the Sandworm might be a bit too easy. With these numbers I can adjust the game. But first, let’s verify the numbers match what we see at other difficulty levels. Here’s Challenge 12:

• 85% vs Goliath
  
• 92% vs Scourge Leader
  
• 58% vs Spider Queen
  
• 95% vs Sandworm
  
• 90% vs Demon
  

Overall slightly better but quite similar percentages. This is to be expected because the global win rate is higher as we saw earlier. Interesting to see that the Demon is not as difficult. It’s possible by that point players really have a good grasp on the game…or I simply don’t have enough data and a few people got lucky.
[h2]General Stats[/h2]
Another piece of data that’s important is how much of “something” are players doing. This helps me make sure the game length is adequate and there is enough content.

A common stat for turn-based games is how many turns it takes to win a battle and, conversely, how long it takes to play. Typically, a battle in Mech Armada is between 3 and 6 turns, while it can last anywhere from 30 seconds up to 5 minutes or more. These numbers fall well within my design expectations.



A key element of playing Mech Armada is buying mech parts to make your team stronger. So, how many and what kind of parts are people buying in a run? Overall, here are the results:

• Transport: 1-3
  
• Body: 1-3
  
• Weapon: 1-5
  

It makes sense more weapons are being bought, as in a mech you can equip 2 or 3 different weapons. At the same time, these numbers are a bit misleading, because they include people who died early in their run, so they didn’t have a chance to get many parts. If we look at people who got to the last environment, the numbers go up:

• Transport: 1-3
  
• Body: 2-4
  
• Weapon: 4-8
  

Weapons stick out even more as what people need the most. Transport is less exciting, you start with some pretty decent options, so there is less pressure to get more. Bodies provide some benefit, so they sit in between.
[h2]Pick Rates[/h2]
Because Mech Armada presents players with a choice when they buy parts or earn expansions, I can track which ones are most popular. I prefer looking at players who’ve unlocked all parts, as they have all the options and know the game better. Here are the most and least popular parts and expansions with the percentage of times they were picked when offered:
[h3]Transport[/h3]

[h3]Body[/h3]

[h3]Weapon[/h3]

[h3]Expansion[/h3]

Ideally, you want the pick rate for every part to be 50%. That would mean they are all perfectly balanced. That’s never going to happen, but I can definitely look at some outliers and figure out why people don’t like them (or like them too much!)

Some quick conclusions that can be drawn from these results:

• Players really like weapons with lots of damage, range and area-of-effect. And they hate anything support.
  
• They like big legs and they cannot lie.
  
• Some expansions need some love, but damage, armor and health are always popular.
  
• The Chain Reaction body is super popular, so a nerf is likely coming.
  
• Conversely, nobody like the Kamikaze. I get it. It’s hard to use, but can be game-breaking if used well.
  

Which brings me to another point. There’s another angle to the pick rates. Players pick certain parts because they think they have a better chance of winning with that part but, is this actually true? Let’s find out.
[h2]Win Rates[/h2]
This is the trickiest number to calculate. A lot is happening in every battle and every run, and it’s not obvious how to link victory (or defeat) to a specific part. The way I extracted the data is not perfect, but will have to do for our purposes: I look at all the runs where a player picked a part and figure out how many of those ended in victory. This ignores progress made with a part that didn’t go all the way to the end, but because parts drop equally throughout the run it should be close enough. Also, I’m once again looking at players that have all parts unlocked, otherwise parts that you unlock later have better stats not because they’re better, but because only good players have access to them.

Because I simply don’t have enough data to give exact percentages for win rates, we’ll just look at which parts do better in general. Also, I’m excluding the initial parts from this list.
[h3]Transport[/h3]

Already we see something interesting here. Buggy and Trike are not very popular, but do well. Walker is the opposite. Tracks and Mini Spider are both not popular and not successful, so they could use some tuning.
[h3]Body[/h3]

Again, here some bodies are well understood by players, like Eagle Eye, Ranger, Commando and Maximus (all very popular). Engineer is under-appreciated (pick rate is 35%).

At the bottom, Off-roader, Turbo and Bullseye deserve a redesign, as they don’t seem to be serving players well right now.
[h3]Weapon[/h3]

So much to unpack here. It seems that players want the damage-dealing weapons, but the best predictor of success is picking support parts. I’ll need to think about this. There could be an imbalance in the game where support is sort of required to succeed but it’s not attractive enough; I believe this is pretty common for this type of game. But it could also be that players who like to use support weapons are generally more skilled at the game and therefore more likely to succeed – this is always the challenge with looking at data.

Oh, and the Neutralizer is a disaster, so that needs to get fixed.
[h3]Expansion[/h3]

This one blows my mind a little. Salvage does really well, but I wonder if I just don’t have enough data; honestly, it doesn’t make a lot of sense. Accuracy and Protector perform as advertised, while the health-based expansions like Restore and Pristine tend to disappoint (probably because you need a specific team composition to engage a health economy).

Lastly, Initiative is a surprise. I keep hearing how game-breaking-overpowered it is, but it seems to not perform nearly as well in practice.
[h2]Data Informed[/h2]
There’s a lot of talk of being “data driven” in the games industry. I prefer the term “data informed”. The difference is that all of these numbers are just one consideration. I look at player feedback from Discord and the Steam forums, videos on YouTube and Twitch, conversations on Twitter and my own personal experience playing the game.

And then I decide to make adjustments.

And then, the whole process starts all over again. Expect a number of tweaks based on these results. Hopefully they’ll make the game more balanced and, as a result, more fair and enjoyable.

/Sergio

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