Mechabellum News

Hi everyone,

For a long time, we have had two important design goals:

1. To place players in a richer and more varied strategic environment, with lots of permutations to take into account and counter.
   
2. And to provide you all with more means to solve strategy problems arising from more factors present on the battlefield
   

The most recent 0.7.42 update is also a product of these goals. Over the past three weeks, we collected a lot of data and feedback, and after analyzing it, we decided to introduce some balance changes, as well as new features related to the free unit card system in the upcoming 0.7.45 update. Let’s get into what you can expect from the 0.7.45 update:

[h3]Update Launch Time:[/h3]
This update will be carried out at 6:00 am on February 26th, 2024, UTC. At that time, the server will undergo update maintenance for about 120 minutes.

[h3]New Features:[/h3]

• There is now an option to auto-save replays in the settings.
  
• There is now an option to set players' HP when practicing with bots.
  
• There is now an option to turn off free unit cards in custom lobbies.
  
• There is now an option to set players' HP in custom lobbies.
  

[h3]New Equipment:[/h3]

• Mustang Production Line: [Giant Units Only] Produces 4 Mustangs every 11 seconds.
  
• Steel Ball Production Line: [Giant Units Only] Produces 2 Steel Balls every 16 seconds.
  

[h3]Balance Adjustments:[/h3]

• When calculating the score after the battle, the units controlled by hackers will only deal a quarter of the original damage to the enemy player's HP.
  
• The single-round budget for free unit cards after 5 rounds has been reduced:
  

We will now of course continue to monitor how the game performs after the next patch and adjust again if more balance updates are needed.

[h3]About how we communicate:[/h3]
Finally, we also want to acknowledge that we should have done a better job communicating a major update like 0.7.42 to you. In the future, we’ll give you a proper heads-up when rolling out an update like that. We’re also exploring some additional options on how to better involve our players in our early access period. We can’t say too much now, but be on the lookout for more news soon!

Hello everyone!

Recently we launched three experimental features for Mechabellum, and after a few days of testing, we feel we have enough feedback from all of you to share some of our own learning and insights. The purpose of this Q&A post is to answer a few questions we saw pop up most often since we introduced these experimental features.

[h3]Q: Why launch the free unit cards system?[/h3]
The goal of free unit cards is to provide players with a richer and more varied gaming experience. When we designed this system, we had the following design goals:
1. Allow players to face more varied strategic situations during the game, and reduce the feeling of repetition after playing for a long time.
2. Provide players with more opportunities to make strategic adjustments, and reduce the feeling of powerlessness in the late stages of the game.
3. Increase the importance of adaptability in the strategy.
4. Give many less-used units a chance to play, avoid the situation where only a few types of units are on the board.

[h3]Q: Is the purpose of free unit cards to weaken competitiveness and cater to casual players?[/h3]

It’s not. Free unit cards are designed to add depth to Mechabellum’s competitive layer. How to correctly choose free unit cards tests the player's experience, analytical skills, and creative thinking. Players who have a deeper understanding of the game have a greater advantage than before. Judging from the already available data, the winning rate of high-level players is even higher than before. At the highest level (around 2000 MMR), the competitiveness has not declined and rather seems to have improved slightly.

On the other hand, more casual players now face greater challenges. In the past, new players had to be concerned with only 3-4 types of deployed units. With the free unit card system, the players need to have a certain level of understanding of all 19 types of units. We understand that a system tweak of this level requires all of you to re-learn some tactics and habits, but we hope that as you play more, and get comfortable with this new feature, you’ll find it as engaging as we believe it to be.

[h3]Q: I am a hardcore player, and I just feel that free unit cards greatly increase the randomness of the game. What is your opinion on this matter?[/h3]

Free unit cards do introduce an element of randomness into the game, which increases the sense of randomness in the game. I’d like to share a few personal thoughts on this that I hope can help explain our reasoning behind this change further:

1. The free unit cards are intended to add a layer of randomness and reactivity on the player’s part to the game. A system like that will naturally feel even more chaotic when it’s new and is being put to test by a broad group of players, for the first time. We believe that as you play the game more, over the next week or two, you’ll get more accustomed to identifying new strategies and permutations possible in any given moment of the match. That said, we will of course observe your feedback and continue to analyze data, and will make adjustments on our end as needed.

2. Some of the free unit cards in the first patch are simply too powerful, which sometimes results in only one of the four free unit cards being worth choosing. Such a narrow selection greatly amplifies the random impact on the battle. We've now re-balanced the free unit cards in the latest patch, hoping to improve this situation and give players more options to plan and counter more effectively.

3. In the past, we didn’t explain the appearance mechanism of free unit cards clearly enough. As a result, many of you didn’t know how to predict and counter the appearance of free unit cards. That - understandably - further amplified the sense of randomness some of you described. The relevant rules are now explained in detail in the latest 0.7.44 update patch. We hope that will make it easier for you all to prepare your tactics and anticipate possible combat scenarios in your matches.

[h3]Q: I don’t like the new free unit card. Will you remove this feature after the three-week trial period?[/h3]
As the update was only just recently released, we feel we don’t yet have sufficient data and information to determine whether to retain the free unit cards. Frankly speaking however, based on the available data, we are currently quite satisfied with the positive impact the free unit cards have brought to the game. After the three-week experiment period ends and everyone’s opinions are divided, we’ll evaluate whether to add “classic” and “standard” queues for 1v1. That said, we want to make it clear there is a downside to that, as having two queues will slow down match-making speed. Due to that we will not make this decision hastily and will carefully analyze the data before making a final decision.

[h3]Q: Why are duplicate reinforcement cards allowed?[/h3]
The reason we made this change is to provide players who have played the game for a long time with a more varied gaming experience. We are still observing the impact of this change on game balance and will evaluate whether to keep it, as the test concludes.

[h3]Q: Why are the deployment areas in the first round reduced by two squares? Is this making the offensive tactics too weak?[/h3]
We always believed that the unit positions of the first round were a relatively weak part of the game. The reason is that all units in the first round can move at will, so it is difficult to predict the opponent's tactics. In this patch, we hope to limit the deployment area in the first round, while using free unit cards to increase the possibility of using offensive tactics in later rounds. If this experiment is successful, we will have more room to adjust the core of the past offensive tactics such as Rhino and Steel Ball.

[h3]Q: Are offensive tactics too weak?[/h3]
Judging from the data and feedback collected so far, the traditional offensive tactics of using only 3-4 types of units have indeed been weakened. However, at the same time, the offensive tactics of using a variety of different units have been enhanced. At this moment we’re not ready to draw decisive conclusions and want to analyze more data as it comes in.

[h3]Q: When is the next update?[/h3]
The next 10 days will be the Chinese New Year holiday, and most colleagues will return to their hometowns to reunite with their families. After the holiday, we will immediately start working on the next update based on feedback. The new patch will be rolled out at the end of February.

Hi! This is the first balance patch after the launch of the three experimental features. In this patch, we have rebalanced most of the free unit cards. And we also hope to take this opportunity to explain the rules behind the free unit card.

[h2]Balance Adjustments[/h2]
Nerfed the free unit cards of Hacker and War Factory.
Nerfed the free unit cards of high-level Phoenix, Wasp, Marksman, Arclight, and Mustang.
Nerfed all free unit cards with a squad count greater than 1.

[h2]The Rules behind Free Unit Cards[/h2]
Free unit cards will appear once in each of the four ranges (rounds 2-4, rounds 5-7, rounds 8-10, and rounds 11-13).
Units already on the field will not appear as free unit cards.
The single-round budget of free unit cards = 200 x Number of rounds
In addition to the basic cost of the units, when calculating the value of free unit cards, the unit's level, squad count, maintenance fee, etc. will also be included in the calculation.

[h2]More Discussions[/h2]
We understand that many players have their own opinions on the three experimental features, so we will publish a post in a few days to explain our design goals and answer the many questions you have raised during this time. We welcome you all at that time go read it and have a discussion.

Fixed an issue where the effects of some reinforcement cards did not stack correctly.

This update adds some experimental features aimed at fun, which will cause the game to be slightly less balanced. These experimental features will last for about 3 weeks, after which we will decide whether to retain these features based on your feedback and statistics.

[h2]Time[/h2]
This update will be carried out at 8:00 am on February 1, 2024, UTC time. At that time, the server will undergo update maintenance for about 120 minutes.

[h2]Three experimental features[/h2]
[h3]Random Free Units[/h3]
During a game, players will encounter several opportunities to obtain units for free. Get 5 squads of Sledgehammer, or 3 Wraith, or 1 level 7 Rhino for free? Players will encounter many such difficult choices.
To ensure that the game doesn't end too quickly, the player's base health has been increased by 500.
If this feature proves popular, we will introduce rare units through this feature in the future.
[h3]Duplicate Reinforcement Cards[/h3]
Many reinforcement cards now appear multiple times in the game. 2 Laser Sights? 4 Ranged Specialists? 3 Nukes? It's possible.
[h3]Changing Deployment Zone[/h3]
The deployment zone for the first round will now be slightly smaller than before. We hope this will improve the first round layout diversity of certain MRR ranges.

[h2]Balance Adjustments[/h2]
[h3]Melting Point[/h3]
The production interval of the Tech [Crawler Production] has been adjusted from 30 seconds to 32 seconds.
[h3]Scorpion[/h3]
HP increased from 19677 to 20661
Attack increased from 10305 to 10821
[h3]Equipment[/h3]
[Enhancement Module] adjusted from level 2 to level 3
The effect of [Absorption Module] is adjusted as follows: Increases the equipped unit’s HP by 30%, and converts 90% of the damage dealt to HP.