3rd Anniversary AMA part 1
As there is almost 200 questions asked in total and we just closed the forms yesterday, we honestly did not have enough time to answer everything to post today thus we've decided to separate this AMA into two piece, one for this week answering everything regarding features and gameplay related questions while next week will be everything regarding customization as well as show what you, the community, has sent in! Askers who have sent in their name will find their names in quotes before the question.
We answered every questions asked so if it seems we cut your questions off, you should be able to find them in another category. If the questions asked similar things that we can answer together, they’ll be grouped together. If it looks like we missed your question or misunderstood what your questions meant, feel free to ask it again in the comments section below!
ps. The comments have more!
We've known and have been with this bug internally for a while and honestly, it is a difficult bug to fix. It will be solved but we do not know when it'll be happening.
No. This is something we wanted to leave it to players' agency in order to figure out. We do not want to provide every information available and wanted players to have the excitement of discovery and to discuss amongst each others their findings, hence the player-made wiki. One can still ask us and we'll give them the straight answers onto where each blueprints drop though. We've provided that favor multiple times already so feel free to talk to us!
YES! We wanted an official system to share builds between each other. We mentioned this last year before starting the development of 0.9.0 that we wanted to work on what we called PRESET system, a system that allows builds, pieces of completed parts alongside its accessories to be shared both internally between players' frame and externally between players through usage of codes or export of files. However, we did not have any spare time at all (just look at how long 0.9.0 is taking) and thus we haven't had a chance to work on it yet.
IT WILL BE THERE! THERE WILL BE A METHOD TO SHARE BUILDS WE PROMISE!
Let me answer it like this. When we answered AMAs, we have everyone in the team sit round together and look to the possibility and feasibility of the request. If everyone on the team can agree to work on it then we'll answer the AMA question with an acceptance. If it is something that one of us disagrees with we will just outright deny the suggestion/request. So anything that's answered along the lines of "surely we'll do it" is still out there, just that we don't know when we'll get to work on it. Like slow firing shooters, dual wielding and shielded shooters, etc. Oh, I guess aerial and low gravity missions are out of the window now though. That's one thing we're sure the game is not designed for and after exploring how we can make it without much change from what our game is designed for, we don't think it'll be fun so we're scrapping that altogether.
I don't think there's anything that we promise to do and later cancelled from old AMAs left. Things that are mentioned "we'll explore" or "we'll investigate" we discuss amongst ourselves and leave it at that. If it's something we agree on, we'll put them in our development pipeline just like various QoL upgrades we've shown in the past. Lots of them are from AMA requests and suggestions through our Discord and Feedback Hub. We just don't talk about it and only announce when we're ready.
Why? Honestly, we've seen people misunderstanding or twisting lots of our words and when we try to de-escalate any of them, it goes further beyond and creates friction between devs and players (which you might have noticed for a while now) so unless people ask us directly, we will not talk about any of our internal discussions or provide any leaks of what we're working on aside from the weekly WIP posts. Honestly, we don't know why or when development steered itself into a dev vs. player mindset but we don't want it to move further into that territory.
If we're talking about particle effects, yes we'll keep on improving them and making their visuals better. If we're talking about its techs, and whatnot, the answer is also yes, we'll be making melee feel better to use through the means we have.
Right before the game is released in its 1.0 state, we will bring back achievements system since at that point, nothing much will be changed anymore, balance issues should be mostly solved, and we can settle on what's the challenge to complete
Yes, we've answered this last year that it's something we have plans for. However, it will take a long time to develop such system as it is very much different from the current Photography Mode itself. Basically a large, new system must be developed to be able to make multiple units photo mode happen. Just to quote last years'
"... it’s not going to be soon. It’s basically another kind of photography mode in itself. It’s a lot to be work on like how to select, where to place each unit, which kind of pose for unit 1 and unit 2, any effects available, et cetera. It’s a whole lot other things but we are planning to do it..."
We will quote last year's answer since they are still the same
"Customizable poses have too many problems accompanying it both currently and in the long term. There is a reason why we released the game with those poses and used our time to make new poses in almost every update instead of making a customizable pose system. There are too many technicalities involved in the joints, the limbs, the frames, and everything that might seem humanoid at first but isn’t like that at all when working with the M.A.S.S. unit that we will outright decline working on a customizable pose system."
ทางทีมงานคิดว่าไม่น่าจะทำได้ครับ เพราะแต่ละปุ่มในเกมตอนนี้ถูกใช้งานไปกับแต่ละรูปแบบการเคลื่อนไหวหรืออะไรของมันแล้ว อันนี้ไม่ได้หมายถึงปุ่มคีย์บอร์ดนะครับ แต่เพราะเกมเราต้องออกแบบมาเพื่อให้ผู้เล่นที่ใช้ Controller เล่นได้แบบไม่เสียหายอะไร เราจึงไม่สามารถเพิ่มอะไรแบบนี้เข้าไปในเกมได้ เพราะผู้เล่น Controller จะไม่มีปุ่มเหลือให้ใช้งานของเหล่านี้
Translation: We're unable to do something like this because we don't have enough buttons already. We don't mean keyboards since we're trying to make players playing with controllers have the best possible experience, we don't want to alienate them with a system that they don't have enough buttons to use.
One particular system that's never been talked about but has been designed since ages ago (0.4.0 or 0.5.0?) there's a weak point system (cannot be locked) on bosses that would allow us to scale ranged weapons damage down (since they can aim at weakpoints to utilise this system) while melee players can get their high damage swings and even higher if they get a chance to aim at these weak points.
We never get a chance to work on because the game still works fine with the current combat system. We hope to be able to work on it sooner than later since there's now people telling others there's no reason to use things other than shooters when we wanted a game where no one has to feel pressured to play something just because "it's better" and play however they wanted. Without this system in play, we cannot do anything except watch players melt bosses with ease.
Then there's the photography mode upgrade up there as well. The aforementioned sharing system. And there's also the much requested frame skirt removals, the dialogue replay system, etc. There's too many we wanted to put in but alas, we don't have enough hands nor time.
No, we provide full armor sets and parts at the start already. You can even enter into the armor menu to randomize everything at the start.
No, we will not be using Steam Workshop in M.A.S.S. Builder. due to various factors including backers exclusivity. We want our backers to feel special with their creations officially in our game. You can still share builds through the PRESET system and anywhere when it's finished but no Steam Workshop.
We will continue to add more background into the game. We'll try to work on a piece where the M.A.S.S. unit can look to be standing on the ground but the game won't have any green screens or clear transparent background.
This is certainly something extra that we will have to deny. Reasons are that each and every module of the tuning system is treated as an individual piece and not part of a line and we cannot hide certain pieces of "lower levels" without recreating a large part of the system. We hope you will be able to work with the current and soon to be updated sorting system.
This will be doable when we can work on the aforementioned PRESET system.
While we understand how going back to the lobby menu and then into the other customization menu is sometimes a chore, the two room works in different ways and we don't want to clutter the menu with tons of buttons to press. We'll investigate further if we can make a button to swap rooms without going back to the lobby menu though.
Yes, we are planning for more credits spending but just as we mentioned last year, there are a lot of people who still does not have enough credits to unlock everything that's unlockable in the game so we're not in a hurry to work on it. Should be something right before 1.0 release or a while after that.
We consider the current one that allows player to rotate/zoom the camera freely with focus on the parts already free enough. We will not work on a non-focus floating camera system.
While we don't use William's save as it would affect and influence our ideas for the game, we do acknowledge and honor their tool as one of the most useful tool out there that has helped our game a lot. We would prefer players to expose themselves to the tool and see what's extremely beneficial to them and have a discussion with us on how we could upgrade official in-game systems to perform some of those functions.
On that note, things like going OVER or UNDER the limits of frame expansion isn't something we will do. File sharing will be covered with the PRESET system in the future.
No. As we wanted tunings and techs to mean nothing to players' aesthetics, this would break that rule of having players use anything for their looks (and animations) and having a separate status.
We answered every questions asked so if it seems we cut your questions off, you should be able to find them in another category. If the questions asked similar things that we can answer together, they’ll be grouped together. If it looks like we missed your question or misunderstood what your questions meant, feel free to ask it again in the comments section below!
ps. The comments have more!
FEATURES and QUALITY OF LIFE
Tsubasa:
Hello Xsi and other members of the Vermillion Digital team for some reason, if an accessory's Pitch is 90 degrees or somewhere close to it, the Yaw and Roll would not roll correctly (they would behave as if they are the same thing entirely). Since this makes adjusting accessories correctly extremely difficult, can a quick patch be issued such that this problem will be solved (if 0.9 is not ready or if it won't come with 0.9)?
We've known and have been with this bug internally for a while and honestly, it is a difficult bug to fix. It will be solved but we do not know when it'll be happening.
RAINING TIKI:
Will there a thing in the mission menu's for seeing which mission drops blueprints for which parts on whatever difficulty or will it be left up to the Wiki players?
No. This is something we wanted to leave it to players' agency in order to figure out. We do not want to provide every information available and wanted players to have the excitement of discovery and to discuss amongst each others their findings, hence the player-made wiki. One can still ask us and we'll give them the straight answers onto where each blueprints drop though. We've provided that favor multiple times already so feel free to talk to us!
T.K. @ Oasis:
Is there going to be a system where people can upload M.A.S.S. units for others to download and use? Or maybe turn them into codes that people can enter? Something like that.
Redgrave:
Seeing many amazing creations made by community, will there be some methods of sharing them? Steam Workshop or maybe some in-game browser?
Ibrzu:
Would it be possible to implement some kind of unique code per each mech look so if a friend wanted to have the same look to his mech as yours he could just copy the code and input it into his own game rather than replicate every single detail manually?
WuttaDawgDoin:
Will there be plans to allow for uploading and download of player creations
The_Gordon_Kill:
Will we be able to get workshop frames and use other players M.A.S.S? I think it would be an awesome addition to the game if we could copy and edit other peoples frames.
RAINING TIKI:
Will there be a way for the players to post their Creations and other players to download them "In-Game"? This is for those who have a very hard time creating because of either Lack of ideas or they have the ideas but its just hard overall for them put the thing together.
YES! We wanted an official system to share builds between each other. We mentioned this last year before starting the development of 0.9.0 that we wanted to work on what we called PRESET system, a system that allows builds, pieces of completed parts alongside its accessories to be shared both internally between players' frame and externally between players through usage of codes or export of files. However, we did not have any spare time at all (just look at how long 0.9.0 is taking) and thus we haven't had a chance to work on it yet.
IT WILL BE THERE! THERE WILL BE A METHOD TO SHARE BUILDS WE PROMISE!
Therex55213:
Of the features confirmed in previous AMAs, many have been since cancelled or shelved indefinitely due to complexity (such as extending the joint sliders further). Are there any features previously confirmed in AMAs which have since been cancelled, but have not been outright stated as such, you think would be better for people to not hold out undue hope for seeing in the near future?
Let me answer it like this. When we answered AMAs, we have everyone in the team sit round together and look to the possibility and feasibility of the request. If everyone on the team can agree to work on it then we'll answer the AMA question with an acceptance. If it is something that one of us disagrees with we will just outright deny the suggestion/request. So anything that's answered along the lines of "surely we'll do it" is still out there, just that we don't know when we'll get to work on it. Like slow firing shooters, dual wielding and shielded shooters, etc. Oh, I guess aerial and low gravity missions are out of the window now though. That's one thing we're sure the game is not designed for and after exploring how we can make it without much change from what our game is designed for, we don't think it'll be fun so we're scrapping that altogether.
I don't think there's anything that we promise to do and later cancelled from old AMAs left. Things that are mentioned "we'll explore" or "we'll investigate" we discuss amongst ourselves and leave it at that. If it's something we agree on, we'll put them in our development pipeline just like various QoL upgrades we've shown in the past. Lots of them are from AMA requests and suggestions through our Discord and Feedback Hub. We just don't talk about it and only announce when we're ready.
Why? Honestly, we've seen people misunderstanding or twisting lots of our words and when we try to de-escalate any of them, it goes further beyond and creates friction between devs and players (which you might have noticed for a while now) so unless people ask us directly, we will not talk about any of our internal discussions or provide any leaks of what we're working on aside from the weekly WIP posts. Honestly, we don't know why or when development steered itself into a dev vs. player mindset but we don't want it to move further into that territory.
Billie Jean:
Will you gonna improve the melee effect system because I very like the blade wave.
If we're talking about particle effects, yes we'll keep on improving them and making their visuals better. If we're talking about its techs, and whatnot, the answer is also yes, we'll be making melee feel better to use through the means we have.
Shogapic:
Will the game have achievement (stable and ready, not in 0.4 or 0.5 where they were introduced and quickly removed) ?
Right before the game is released in its 1.0 state, we will bring back achievements system since at that point, nothing much will be changed anymore, balance issues should be mostly solved, and we can settle on what's the challenge to complete
xLord_Anubis:
For the posing/taking pictures of your MASS Units could there be an option way down the line to take a picture of multiple MASS units in various poses? I say way down the line because this isn't so much gameplay, but merely a Builder/Collector sort of thing.
Yes, we've answered this last year that it's something we have plans for. However, it will take a long time to develop such system as it is very much different from the current Photography Mode itself. Basically a large, new system must be developed to be able to make multiple units photo mode happen. Just to quote last years'
"... it’s not going to be soon. It’s basically another kind of photography mode in itself. It’s a lot to be work on like how to select, where to place each unit, which kind of pose for unit 1 and unit 2, any effects available, et cetera. It’s a whole lot other things but we are planning to do it..."
Talbolago:
Are there plans to let us make our own custom poses in photography mode?
Anonymous:
Want to pose MASS by yourself!
We will quote last year's answer since they are still the same
"Customizable poses have too many problems accompanying it both currently and in the long term. There is a reason why we released the game with those poses and used our time to make new poses in almost every update instead of making a customizable pose system. There are too many technicalities involved in the joints, the limbs, the frames, and everything that might seem humanoid at first but isn’t like that at all when working with the M.A.S.S. unit that we will outright decline working on a customizable pose system."
Ball17291:
ท่าท่างหุ่นภายในเกมส์ จะสามารถนำมาใส่ในการเล่นเกมส์จริงได้ไหมครับ? เช่นใส่ท่าในหน้าเมนู แล้วเล่นเกมส์จริง กดปุ่มCtrl>หุ่นนั้ง,กดปุ่มz>หุ่นหมอบ หรือปุ่มอิโติคอนวงกลม กดเลือกหุ่นแบบเลือกท่า
Translation: Will we be able to bring poses from the photography mode into gameplay itself? Like assigning poses from the menu and pressing some button to show those emotes, setting crouches into CTRL and Z to prone.
ทางทีมงานคิดว่าไม่น่าจะทำได้ครับ เพราะแต่ละปุ่มในเกมตอนนี้ถูกใช้งานไปกับแต่ละรูปแบบการเคลื่อนไหวหรืออะไรของมันแล้ว อันนี้ไม่ได้หมายถึงปุ่มคีย์บอร์ดนะครับ แต่เพราะเกมเราต้องออกแบบมาเพื่อให้ผู้เล่นที่ใช้ Controller เล่นได้แบบไม่เสียหายอะไร เราจึงไม่สามารถเพิ่มอะไรแบบนี้เข้าไปในเกมได้ เพราะผู้เล่น Controller จะไม่มีปุ่มเหลือให้ใช้งานของเหล่านี้
Translation: We're unable to do something like this because we don't have enough buttons already. We don't mean keyboards since we're trying to make players playing with controllers have the best possible experience, we don't want to alienate them with a system that they don't have enough buttons to use.
Hunter T:
Are there any particular features you wanted to add that you had to put on the back burner, but might come back to in the future?
One particular system that's never been talked about but has been designed since ages ago (0.4.0 or 0.5.0?) there's a weak point system (cannot be locked) on bosses that would allow us to scale ranged weapons damage down (since they can aim at weakpoints to utilise this system) while melee players can get their high damage swings and even higher if they get a chance to aim at these weak points.
We never get a chance to work on because the game still works fine with the current combat system. We hope to be able to work on it sooner than later since there's now people telling others there's no reason to use things other than shooters when we wanted a game where no one has to feel pressured to play something just because "it's better" and play however they wanted. Without this system in play, we cannot do anything except watch players melt bosses with ease.
Then there's the photography mode upgrade up there as well. The aforementioned sharing system. And there's also the much requested frame skirt removals, the dialogue replay system, etc. There's too many we wanted to put in but alas, we don't have enough hands nor time.
Anonymous:
Can you provide several MASS presets for beginners?(He means the MASS with full accessories)
No, we provide full armor sets and parts at the start already. You can even enter into the armor menu to randomize everything at the start.
Jack:
My question is if it will be possible, in future updates, to insert the steam workshop where you can download all the mecha uploaded, whoever wants, from the community?
Have you considered opening your creative workshop on Steam?
No, we will not be using Steam Workshop in M.A.S.S. Builder. due to various factors including backers exclusivity. We want our backers to feel special with their creations officially in our game. You can still share builds through the PRESET system and anywhere when it's finished but no Steam Workshop.
Anonymous:
Can photography mode include a background with "clear ground space", or can it simply use the existing level map as the background? Or can you create a green background, or a PNG transparent layer?
We will continue to add more background into the game. We'll try to work on a piece where the M.A.S.S. unit can look to be standing on the ground but the game won't have any green screens or clear transparent background.
Anonymous:
Adjust the interface to increase the function that the module of the same name can only show the highest level module and display the engine, skeleton, OS level
This is certainly something extra that we will have to deny. Reasons are that each and every module of the tuning system is treated as an individual piece and not part of a line and we cannot hide certain pieces of "lower levels" without recreating a large part of the system. We hope you will be able to work with the current and soon to be updated sorting system.
Anonymous:
When copying the appearance of the MASS, can different parts be copied? Sometimes I don't want to copy the whole MASS to another slot.
This will be doable when we can work on the aforementioned PRESET system.
Anonymous:
Can the editing of MASS and weapon be integrated in the same room and different areas can be switched through the lens to make weapon adjustment and body adjustment more convenient
While we understand how going back to the lobby menu and then into the other customization menu is sometimes a chore, the two room works in different ways and we don't want to clutter the menu with tons of buttons to press. We'll investigate further if we can make a button to swap rooms without going back to the lobby menu though.
Anonymous:
Can you add some consumables to the game to use up the extra credit points
Yes, we are planning for more credits spending but just as we mentioned last year, there are a lot of people who still does not have enough credits to unlock everything that's unlockable in the game so we're not in a hurry to work on it. Should be something right before 1.0 release or a while after that.
Anonymous:
Want to be able to move the perspective freely when building
We consider the current one that allows player to rotate/zoom the camera freely with focus on the parts already free enough. We will not work on a non-focus floating camera system.
Anonymous:
Will some of the features of the William’s save tool be incorporated into the game? such as the Skeleton regulation function and savefiles extraction function
While we don't use William's save as it would affect and influence our ideas for the game, we do acknowledge and honor their tool as one of the most useful tool out there that has helped our game a lot. We would prefer players to expose themselves to the tool and see what's extremely beneficial to them and have a discussion with us on how we could upgrade official in-game systems to perform some of those functions.
On that note, things like going OVER or UNDER the limits of frame expansion isn't something we will do. File sharing will be covered with the PRESET system in the future.
Anonymous::
Can you add a new module in the "adjust" module, or binding with the OS module/Architect module, make the player can set the action of the body template, such as "high power", "heavy", "fighting", "shooting", "fire suppression", etc., and on the actual body movements also differ according to the different type?(Which basically means he wants a couple different sets of action templates)
No. As we wanted tunings and techs to mean nothing to players' aesthetics, this would break that rule of having players use anything for their looks (and animations) and having a separate status.
STORIES and MISSIONS
