Mechabellum News

[p]This update is mainly about minor QOL improvement, building adjustments, and other balance adjustments. At the same time, we hope to take this opportunity to answer some questions about Casual Mode.[/p][p][/p]

• [p]Now the game will remember the mode last selected by the player[/p]
• [p]Battle Victory and Defeat music no longer loops[/p][p][/p]

• [p]Added two new building layouts (different from the old layout in the position of defensive walls)[/p]

[p][/p][p][/p]

• [p]Anti-armor Cannon and rapid-fire Cannon will be affected by the paralysis effect caused by the core building (the 2 towers) destruction[/p]
• [p]Anti-Armor Cannon: Range 140 → 135, Health Point 3734 → 4334 (+16%)[/p]
• [p]Rapid-Fire Cannon: Range 140 → 135, Health Point 3055 → 3146 (+3%)[/p]

[p]Developer's Note: These adjustments will reduce the area covered by a single defensive building, which will make the three-lane (the left, middle, and right) structures of the map more clear and also make the wall & cannon combo easier to deal with. Now, Marksman, as the early long-range unit, can shoot Anti-Armor Cannons from outside their range. To compensate for the reduction in range, we have also slightly increased the HP of both types of cannons.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]EXP[/p]

• [p]Slightly increased the EXP required for units to rank up to levels 4 - 9.[/p]

[p]Developer's Note: This adjustment has little impact on the early rounds. It will mainly affect the timing of high-level units in later rounds.[/p][p][/p][p]Phantom Ray[/p]

• [p]\[Stealth Cloak] Price 250 → 200[/p]

[p]Developer's Note: After the adjustment to the stealth mechanism in previous updates, the cost of the \[Stealth Clock] appears to be too high.[/p][p][/p][p]Fire Badger[/p]

• [p]\[Field Maintenance] Price 250 → 200[/p]
• [p]\[Counter-Fire] Price 200 → 150[/p]
• [p]\[Scorching Fire] Price 300 → 250[/p]

[p]Developer's Note: We had given the new Fire Badger relatively conservative stats because of caution, and we are now in the process of slowly making minor buffs to the Fire Badger based on the statistical data.[/p][p]Void Eye[/p]

• [p]ATK 1008 → 968 (-4%)[/p]
• [p]HP 1509 → 1569 (+4%)[/p]

[p]Developer's Note: We hope to slightly encourage the usage of the survival-related Tech of the Void Eye with this adjustment.[/p][p][/p][p]Raiden[/p]

• [p]HP 18349 → 17432 (-5%)[/p]

[p]Developer's Note: After more means of chaff clear options were introduced, Raiden has become the most popular giant unit. We decided to slightly reduce Raiden's HP so that anti-air units can more effectively counter it.[/p][p][/p][p]Mustang[/p]

• [p]EXP required to rank-up 1100 → 1200 (+9%)[/p]

[p]Developer's Note: Mustang has always been among the top 5 most popular units and has always been well-liked by many people. However, recently, its usage rate has become a bit too high, so we have decided to slightly slow down the rank-up speed of Mustang.[/p][p][/p][p]Equipments[/p]

• [p]\[Laser Sight], \[Improved Fire Control System], and \[Heavy Armor] will no longer appear in the second round[/p]

[p][/p][p]Battlefield Power[/p]

• [p]\[Sticky Oil Bomb]: ignited oil's ground fire duration time 50s → 35s[/p]
• [p]\[Incendiary Bomb]: ground fire duration time 50s → 35s[/p]

[p]Developer's Note: After the Fire Badger became a core unit, players can now more easily ignite oil, so we have decided to reduce the duration of the ground fire to balance this.[/p][p][/p]

• [p]Fixed the issue where the scrollbar in the Season Store defaulted to the bottom, causing many players to be unable to find Season Store items.[/p]
• [p]Fixed multiple data errors caused by the undo button.[/p]
• [p]Fixed multiple issues related to \[Scorching Charge].[/p]
• [p]Fixed multiple target searching issues.[/p]
• [p]Fixed many other UI issues.[/p]

[p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]Q: Will Casual Mode and Ranked Mode use the same matchmaking queue? Will the addition of Casual Mode lead to longer matchmaking times?[/p][p]A: Casual Mode and Ranked Mode use the same matchmaking queue, so matchmaking time has not increased. In fact, after the addition of Casual Mode, we have observed that more players have started to play matchmaking games, so the average matchmaking time has actually decreased. However, it's worth noting that if you cancel a game that has already been successfully matched, you will be unable to find a new game for 3 minutes. If you notice a significant increase in your matching time, this may be the reason.[/p][p][/p][p]Q: Can I obtain Combat Power and season rewards by playing Casual Mode?[/p][p]Answer: Yes, you can still earn Combat Power and Season Rewards by playing Casual Mode.[/p][p][/p][p]Q: Does Casual Mode have MMR?[/p][p]A: Each player has a hidden Casual Mode MMR that is hidden from themselves. This hidden casual MMR uses the same rules as the ranked MMR. The only difference is that players cannot see their own and their opponents' MMR( both casual and ranked MMR) when playing Casual Mode, but players playing Ranked Mode can see the MMR of both sides.[/p][p][/p][p]Q: I only play Ranked Mode, but I encounter opponents who were playing Casual Mode. In this case, my opponent won't lose anything when they lose the game. Isn't this a bit unfair?[/p][p]A: As we mentioned earlier, players in casual mode actually still lose casual MMR after losing a game; it's just that players playing Casual Mode cannot see their own casual MMR. If you think about it, the fact that other players cannot see their own MMR actually has no impact on your gaming experience.[/p][p][/p][p]Q: As a player who participates in Ranked Mode, should I receive some extra rewards?[/p][p]A: First, if you choose Ranked Mode, you already have an information advantage, because only players playing Ranked Mode can see the MMR of both sides, while players playing Casual Mode cannot. Secondly, in the upcoming October update, we will award players who win in Ranked Mode with a little more Combat Power to recognize their spirit of facing challenges![/p][p][/p][p]Q: Are there any other adjustments to Casual Mode in this update?[/p][p]A: Although, as we explained earlier, players in Casual Mode simply cannot see their own and their opponents' MMR, while players in Ranked Mode actually have a slight information advantage because they can see both sides' MMR, we also understand that many players may not read our explanation. Therefore, we have decided to remove the Casual Mode tag from player avatars in this update to avoid further misunderstandings.[/p][p][/p][p]Q: Whether in Ranked mode or Casual mode, I want to gain more Combat Power. Will there be any improvement in this regard in the future?[/p][p]A: Yes, after the 1.8.1 update in October, players will be able to earn Combat Power in PVE games and custom lobby games. Additionally, players will still earn a small amount of Combat Power even after losing a match. Moreover, players who play in Ranked Mode will also earn a bit more Combat Power.[/p]

[p][/p][previewyoutube][/previewyoutube][h3]We are happy to celebrate 1-Year of Competition with the Best Players, Broadcasters, and Viewers in the World. Thank you for your Love, Support, and Attention to Mechabellum. [/h3][p][/p][h3]$10,000 in Prize Pool[/h3][p]Starting Friday, October 3rd, MAG1 will host 5-Weeks of celebration and broadcast during the $10,000 1-Year Anniversary Community and Team Invitational.[/p][p][/p][h3]5-Weeks of Events[/h3][p]To celebrate, we would like to invite the Community to 5-Weeks of Events every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday from October 3rd to November 2nd.[/p][p]To participate, please join us on Discord, QQ, Twitch, and Bilibili for Announcements and Broadcast Coverage.[/p][p][/p][h3]How to Participate This Week[/h3][p]On Friday, October 3rd, at 14:00UTC, the Community is invited to participate in the first ever Mechabellum Blitz Ladder Event. Please check Discord and QQ on Thursday for Announcements and Instructions to Participate.[/p][p]On Saturday, October 4th, at 14:00UTC, the Best Players in the World will compete in the First Day of Private Ladder in the MAG1 1-Year Anniversary Invitational.[/p][p]On Sunday, October 5th, at 14:00UTC, the Community is invited to participate in 2v2 Ladder on Discord and Bilibili. Players who Broadcast on Twitch or Bilibili while playing 2v2 Ranked Ladder between 14:00 and 17:00UTC will compete with and against Teams from Game River, Dreamhaven, MAG1, and Creators who love Mechabellum. Please check Discord and QQ for Announcements, Instructions to Participate, and Limited Data Monitoring.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p]

[p]Fixed the issue where many European players' Fire Badgers would immediately charge at the start of the game.
[/p][p]Developer's Note: This is a bit of a silly accident. Our developers accidentally used the player's local number format when parsing Fire Badger data. Since many European countries outside the United Kingdom use \[ , ] instead of \[ . ] as the decimal separator, 0.5 was parsed as 5. Therefore, most European Fire Badgers become extra aggressive and charge when their HP is less than 500%. We are very sorry for today's accident, and we will conduct training for our team to prevent similar issues from happening again.[/p]

[p] [/p][p]Hello, commanders![/p][p]It may be hard to believe, but Friday (September 26) marks the one-year anniversary of the release of Mechabellum 1.0! We have gathered some interesting statistics for you. Over the past year:[/p]

• [p]All players have played a total of 34,399,855 hours worth of games, which, if converted to years, is nearly 4,000 years.[/p]
• [p]We have released a total of 56 patches, carried out 10 major updates, including 4 season updates.[/p]
• [p]We have added 7 brand-new units, 3 new specialists, 5 new variants, and completely reworked 3 old units.[/p]
• [p]During this year, we made changes to every single unit, among which the most frequently changed were Arclight, Overlord, and Tarantula (all more than 10 times), and the least changed were Melting Point and Hacker (both only once).[/p]

[p]After these fun little stats, let's talk about Season 5! Mechabellum Season 5 has finally arrived! Season 5 will start on September 25 and end on December 18. To avoid introducing significant gameplay mechanic changes in the middle of the season, starting from Season 5, we will change our previous strategy of two major updates per season to one major update and multiple minor updates. In Season 5, we will slow down the release of completely new systems and focus more on improving existing content and adding quality-of-life features.[/p][p]Update 1.8 will take place at 8:00 AM UTC (4:00 AM Eastern Time, 10:00 AM Central European Time) on Thursday, September 25. During which the server will undergo approximately 4 hours of maintenance. The following are the main update contents of Update 1.8:[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]Many players wished for a game mode where they won't lose MMR, so they can test various strategies without stressing over MMR. Therefore, we have decided to introduce a new matchmaking mode in Update 1.8:[/p]

• [p]Before searching for a new match, players can now choose one of the two matchmaking modes: Casual or Ranked.[/p]
• [p]Players who choose casual matchmaking will neither lose nor gain MMR, but can still earn Combat Power and season rewards.[/p]

[p]There are three things to note:[/p]

• [p]Similar to games like StarCraft II, players in both the casual and ranked modes share the same matchmaking queue, and past research has shown that this does not significantly lead to MMR inflation.[/p]
• [p]For players ranked among the top 200 on the global Combat Power leaderboard, although you will not lose MMR in casual mode, you may still lose Combat Power.[/p]
• [p]In 2v2 battles, solo players without a premade team will not be able to use the Casual Mode during matchmaking at this time. We will change this in a subsequent update during Season 5.[/p]

[p]Developer's Note: Casual Mode is the first step in our effort to improve the player matchmaking experience. In the coming months, we will continue to roll out more matchmaking-related experience improvements, which we will introduce in more detail in the subsequent update plan at the end of this announcement.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p]

• [p]Brand-new model[/p]
• [p]Has become a core unit and can now be freely unlocked and recruited in all game modes[/p]
• [p]EXP required for upgrade 1000 → 1300[/p]
• [p]HP 5181 → 4589 ( -11 %)[/p]
• [p]Range 60 → 70[/p]
• [p]Movement speed 10 → 9[/p]
• [p]\[Napalm] Ground Fire duration 15s → 12s[/p]
• [p]\[Scorching Fire] Price: 200 → 300[/p]
• [p]\[Range Enhancement] Price 200 → 300[/p]
• [p]New Tech \[Counter-Fire]: Taking damage increases the Fire Badger's Range by 40 and ATK by 80% for 4s.[/p]

[p] [/p]

• [p]New Tech \[Scorching Charge]: Increases the Fire Badger's base HP by 50%. When its HP drops below 50%, it charges an enemy and detonates, dealing damage equal to its remaining HP to all enemies in a 40m radius and igniting the ground at the impact site.[/p]

[p] [/p][p]And here is a video about the new Fire Badger produced by MAG1, edited by Stoney, and voiced by RoosterPB.[/p][p]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYYH-rvkMxA[/p][previewyoutube][/previewyoutube][p][/p][p]Searching for Battles, Unit Modification, Match Victory, Match Defeat, and Tournaments now all have corresponding music.[/p][p][/p][p]In Season 5, we have prepared many new exciting rewards for you, including many avatars, avatar frames, emoticons, and unit skins.[/p][p] [/p][h3]New Unit Skins[/h3][p] [/p][p] [/p][p] [/p][p] [/p][h3]New Avatars[/h3][p][/p][p][/p][h3]New Avatar Frames[/h3][p][/p][p][/p][h3]New Emotes and Emoticons[/h3][p][/p][p][/p][h3]New Medals[/h3][p][/p][p][/p][p]Sledgehammer[/p]

• [p]\[Mechanical Rage] Movement speed modifier +4 → +6, Attack interval modifier -1.5s→ -1s[/p]
• [p]\[Armor-Piercing Shell] Attack Interval modifier +30% → +40%, ATK modifier +200% → +225%[/p]

[p]Developer's Note: In the previous version, the combination of \[Mechanical Rage], \[Range Enhancement], and \[Armor-Piercing Shell] was too well-rounded, allowing a large number of Sledgehammers to be effective against 80% of ground units, which led to an undesirable amount of Sledgehammer spam at certain MMR ranges. Now that Fire Badger has become a core unit, there are more options for countering light units in the early game. This finally gave us the opportunity to adjust the role of multiple Sledgehammer Techs. Now, \[Mechanical Rage] will be more focused on high movement aggressive play, while \[Armor-Piercing Shell] will be more focused on long-range sniping. We hope that through this adjustment, we can further strengthen the specialty of Sledgehammer in different upgrade directions, which will make players' Tech choices for Sledgehammer more strategic and also provide more opportunities to players to use other units in combination with Sledgehammer.[/p][p][/p][p]Phantom Ray[/p]

• [p]\[Sticky Oil Bomb] Ground fire duration after ignition 12s → 7s[/p]

[p][/p][p]All Ground Fire[/p]

• [p]Damage 350 per second → 290 per second[/p]

[p]Developer's Note: Since Fire Badger has become a core unit, there is now a pretty good amount of chaff-clearing options in the game, which finally gave us the opportunity to reduce the damage to ground fire.[/p][p][/p][p]Specialist[/p]

• [p]The effect of \[Fire Badger Expert] has been adjusted to: Decreases Fire Badger's Tech Upgrade cost by 50. Get 1 Rank 1 Fire Badger in Round 3.[/p]

[p][/p][p][/p]

• [p]Optimized the performance of some UI components[/p]

[p][/p]

• [p]Fixed some UI issues[/p]
• [p]Fix the data error issue caused by Shield Airdrop[/p]
• [p]Fixed the issue of incorrect range display for units with \[Elite Marksman].[/p]
• [p]Fixed some localization issues[/p]
• [p]Fixed some VFX issues[/p]

[p][/p][p]In addition to Update 1.8.0, Season 5 will also have multiple minor updates:[/p][p][/p][h3]1.8.1 Update (Expected to be released by the end of October)[/h3][p][/p][p]Unit Variants[/p]

• [p]New Hound Variant[/p]
• [p]New Raiden Variant[/p]

[p][/p][p]Combat Power Rule Changes[/p]

• [p]Even if a player loses a match, they can still gain a small amount of Combat Power.[/p]
• [p]Players will be able to gain Combat Power in PvE battles and custom lobbies.[/p]

[p][/p][p]Matchmaking Changes[/p]

• [p]Solo players will also be able to engage in 2v2 battles in Casual Mode.[/p]
• [p]In 2v2 Ranked Mode, solo players without a premade team will lose significantly less MMR if their teammates prematurely surrender.[/p]

[p][/p][p]UI Improvement[/p]

• [p]Building Damage Statistics[/p]

[p][/p][h3]1.8.2 Update (Expected to be updated by the end of November)[/h3][p][/p][p]Fire Badger[/p]

• [p]Fire Badger will be available in starter packs[/p]

[p][/p][p]Unit Variants[/p]

• [p]New Void Eye variant[/p]
• [p]New Farseer variant[/p]

[p][/p][p]UI Improvement[/p]

• [p]Players will be able to view past Reinforcement Card offers[/p]

[p][/p][p]That's all for the main updates of Season 5. And we haven't forgotten about the building layout. Currently, we're actively researching ways to further optimize the building layout, and we'll communicate more with you after making more progress. Thank you for all your feedback so far! That's all for today, commanders. See you on the battlefield![/p]

[p]Update 1.8 and Season 5 are coming soon. And before the new season, we still need to make some minor balance adjustments.[/p][p][/p][h2]Balance Adjustments[/h2][p][/p][h3]Sledgehammer[/h3]

• [p]EXP required for rank-up: 1000 → 1300[/p]
• [p]\[Electromagnetic Shot] Price 300 → 400[/p]
• [p]If any player in a match already has a Sledgehammer, the \[Extended Range Sledgehammer] variant will not appear in reinforcements cards.[/p]

[p]Developer's Note: After enhancing the anti-chaff capabilities of units such as Arclight and Mustang, we anticipated that Sledgehammer, as one of the few medium frontline units capable of simultaneously countering anti-chaff units like Arclight and Mustang as well as high-damage units like Melting Point, would become more popular in the new meta. Therefore, we buffed Raiden in the previous patch as a counter to Sledgehammer. However, buffing Raiden appears not to be enough, as statistical data show there are still too many Sledgehammers in the current meta, especially in the 1600 - 1900 MMR range. This 1.7.4 Update aims to slightly nerf Sledgehammer's late-game capabilities while maintaining its identity as a medium frontline unit, which will make strategies centered around Sledgehammer rely more on other units for coordination.[/p][p][/p][h3]Initial Unit[/h3]

• [p]\[Hound & Steel Ball Pack] Player HP modifier +100 → +200[/p]

[p][/p][h2]Future Tests[/h2][p]Currently, the content of Update 1.8 and Season 5 is undergoing a small-scale test on the Closed Beta Server, and Update 1.8 will be our last major update that primarily relies on closed testing. We are in the process of setting up a full-fledged Public Test Server, and starting from Update 1.9, all major updates will undergo public testing on the Public Test Server before their official release.[/p]