M.A.S.S. Builder News

We've been showing you some new Quarks that will be added into the game for the 0.9.0 update, but we've yet to show you a new boss level Quark. Here it is, as a concept art design. That's all for the short update today, see you again next week!



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Back again with another WIP weekly update, this time, showing the progress of our multiplayer mode development. As one of the first steps before starting a multiplayer match is to enter into a lobby with other players, we'd like to show it here first in the same way.



Here's a loading screen for when entering into a mission. We've designed it to allow players to show off a good portion of their unit even before a match starts. And before anyone asks, it's not customizable since the background color shows which team you're on.



Here's a close up image. Note that this isn't yet the final design and there'll be more improvements added in the final touches.

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Another week has passed, another WIP update is here to show you the things we're working on for M.A.S.S. Builder 0.9.0 update. This time, it's more spotlight on the upcoming Quarks. As we've mentioned in previous WIP update, the newer Quarks will feature more details and will bring on some different kind of attacks against humanity, against you. Well, what do you think this Quark can do? Stay tuned to find out when we're ready to show you.





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This may come as a surprise, despite us mentioning throwing balance out the window down the drain, there are still changes that were needed for M.A.S.S. Builder's combat to bring everything to a certain level that's nearly the same. As mentioned time and time again before, our goal is to make everything feels overpowered so that nothing is overpowered and all playstyles feel good to use. So today, we'd like to reveal these changes, our goals to improve the combat in M.A.S.S. Builder in 0.9.0.

Problem: While close combat feels much better and regarded by most as a great playstyle, its performance was still lower than we wanted. Boss enemies does not provide enough time for players to freely attack them for a full combo or two. Melee players felt they need to use certain methods to be effective in playing, such as dash attacks spamming. Quantum Break still feels slightly off. Defensive nodes still overlooked.

Solution: Adjust their attack patterns and vulnerable windows. Raise melee damage and speed in total, even higher in later combos to compensate for their downtime (as mentioned before in gameplay speed adjustments). Write more codes to allow the modification of shield recharge and quantum break activation time through nodes (FINALLY). At the same time, create changes that would provide something more to ranged playstyles as well.

Bosses Changes

• Bosses will have a longer wind-up time before some attacks, such as the first boss' ground stomp, the multi-headed runner boss jump attack.
  
• Bosses will now "fall" for a longer period of time to create a window for combo attacks to chain until the end. These windows of attack should also benefit slow firing weapons such as detonator and single shot weapons more.
  
• Bosses will recover their stamina from melee attacks less.
  
• There's something else planned as a big update coming to boss fights that both close combat and ranged players can utilize, which these changes will compliment. We cannot reveal them yet until its ready.

Dash Attacks

• Reduced dash attacks' damage multiplier by around 20%.
  
• Dash attacks now has a cooldown of 0.4 seconds. Normal players won't feel any difference, but dash attack spammers and macro users will not be able to utilize it to the same power as before.
  
• While changing this might not seem enough to deter players from using it, please know that we don't want that kind of playstyle to die out completely as we wanted everyone to play however they wanted and still have it as a possible playstyle.
  

Others

• As mentioned before, increase melee attacks' animation speed in their combo attacks. The deeper the combo is, the faster the attack is.
  
• Certain defense nodes now have a passive increment to armor in addition to triggered defense increase.
  
• There are now nodes that allow faster shield recharges and quantum break activation. We just had some time to code them in so now there's more choice of nodes to help with your playstyle. Glass cannons ranged players can now regen their shields much faster with a single shield regen investment node while others can have a much lower downtime.
  
• Quantum Break can now utilize "trigger at end combo attacks" tech nodes on every of their 'nth' hit. We're still unsure what 'nth' will be.
  

As we're progressing in 0.9.0 development, we'd like to showcase the newest tile set we've created for upcoming missions, the urban tile set.



We've imagined these cities to still hold modern aesthetics, with a futuristic blend here and there, and filled with high and low rises to house the world and its people that must live on despite battles against the Quarks. While these building might seem larger than scale at first, take note that the sample M.A.S.S. unit is standing far away from them up on a platform.



What is the platform for? A special place just for M.A.S.S. units to pit their strength against each other, of course. The cityscape shown here is what you'll see in the upcoming PvP multiplayer modes and will be used first as a testing grounds for multiplayer lobby.



And here's the full view of the city itself. Stay tuned for more WIP update next week!





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