battleMETAL

battleMETALDevs · None

Released: Dec 23, 2020
Platforms
Last updated: 09 Sep 2026, 08:33 GMT

Updates & announcements

20 posts

14 Jul 2026Developer post
MISSON. SUCCESSFUL. DEAD_HAND.
I started working on battleMETAL 10 years ago on July 6th, 2016. It was released 6 years ago, and I provided updates as best I could over the past several years. When I started the entire project, I didn't really have a long term vision; just that as a hardcore Mechwarrior / Eart
19 Dec 2025Developer post
v6.0.4
Small incremental patch. Weapon Rate of Fire, and reload speed added to Arming Menu. EMP and Ion weapon descriptions more accurate for buffs/debuffs. PAC shield penetration mechanics simplified. Fixed issue where player energy pool wouldn't start fully charged when using ENBAT up
Small incremental patch.
Weapon Rate of Fire, and reload speed added to Arming Menu.
EMP and Ion weapon descriptions more accurate for buffs/debuffs.
PAC shield penetration mechanics simplified.
Fixed issue where player energy pool wouldn't start fully charged when using ENBAT upgrades.
Secondary/Tertiary objectives clearly marked "OPTIONAL" in HUD objective window.
Fixed 'NudgeOutOfSolid' error on debris thrown from misc_building.
Fixed default hud color label text in menu.
Fixed default player colors.
Fixed null-targeting issue with misc_buildings when destroyed.
Original post
15 Aug 2025Developer post
v6.0.0 update.
Bug fixes, some refactoring and cleanup. Gameplay Light Autocannon / ATC switched from hit scan to full projectile. fire rate 0.28 -> 0.32. damage 5.5 -> 9.0 spread increased. 25% damage reduction against buildings. AI accuracy ratings working again. Player and AI beam rend
Bug fixes, some refactoring and cleanup.
Gameplay

Light Autocannon / ATC switched from hit scan to full projectile.
fire rate 0.28 -> 0.32.
damage 5.5 -> 9.0
spread increased.
25% damage reduction against buildings.
AI accuracy ratings working again.
Player and AI beam rendering finally fixed.
Flak changed single-shot, reworked the particle effects.
downgraded the proxy-det radius of EMP, rockets for AI, only players should have this capability.
ESR - fixed and adjusted the shot spread in/out cycle as the weapon is fired.
FLAK - changed from burst-fire to single shot. Reduced reload speed, increased pellet total to 10, increased pellet damage to 7.5
LIGHT LAS - damage changed to 10, energy cost 14, changed damage buff/debuff to 50% reduction against armor.
PLAS - increased damage to 16.0, decreased reload speed for AI units, increased base shot spread.
RCKT - further damage reductions against shielded targets, damage bonus against buildings up to +50%, reduced AI proxy det by half.
"in-cockpit" and "external" sounds.
Code

testing a reduction in local vars in many functions, replaced with a set of temp globals.
Player friction / slope movement code cleaned up.
Mech Hangar model display issues fixed.
Original post
03 Jul 2025Developer post
v5.4.7 - fixed intermittent player move speed issues
+ Balaket : speed : strafe : 120 -> 130 + Warden : speed : all : 165 -> 160 + rebuilt AI pathing for map O3M1. + fixed issue with animations having incorrect background.
17 Jun 2025Developer post
v5.4.3 - map fixes. fixed bug in aiming
+ Fixed some map areas where players can get stuck. + fixed AI node paths for O2M1 and O2M2. + fixed objective trigger issue in O2M3. + fixed intermittent aiming issue.
08 Jun 2025Developer post
v5.4.2 - fixed leg animations, graphics options.
Leg animations were affected by monitor framerate, and the issue has been addressed. I've also updated graphics options to make V-sync and custom refresh rates as either/or.
27 May 2025Developer post
v5.4.1 - fixed ramshocks and directional hit indicators.
Fixed bug with Ramshocks not building charge and not activating. Rebuilt directional hit indicators, will show HUD hints for attacks that come to player's rear 270 arc. Weapon adjustments. Flak Cannon - Damage per pellet: 3.0 -> 4.5 Light ATC - Damage: 5.0 -> 5.5 - reload s
08 Nov 2024Developer post
v5.4.0 - Cleaner walking animations and fixed AI beam offsets.
Small patch adding smoother acceleration, deceleration, animation speeds. Fixed a bug where new beam start points for AI units was incorrect.
28 Oct 2024Developer post
v5.3.3 - fixed tactical map projection.
Finally locked down an annoying issue with the tactical map being oddly mirrored. Map image, object locations, and player facing should completely line up now. Also added the new lightning bolt beams to crystal hazards, makes it easier to see when players are getting hit.
25 Oct 2024Developer post
Celebrating the classics
MetalTech: Earthsiege , October 1994, by Dynamix. Short history: Dynamix made Mechwarrior 1 in 1989. As they started working on Mechwarrior 2, Activision pulled the rights. Activision's Mechwarrior 2 would of course go on to be a legendary game in its own right. Dynamix wanted to
19 Sep 2024Developer post
New Beam Graphics
Beams long suffered from the limitations of Darkplaces default particle system. For all its power, it lacks good higher-resolution details. 5.3.0 adds a new way of rendering beams, allowing for bright and crisp graphics. Additionally I've increased the impact-particle-size of man
07 Sep 2024Developer post
5.2.3 - updated master-server ip address and official hosted servers.
oh and apparently 5.2.2 didn't actually go live, great work, me.
28 Jun 2024Developer post
5.2.2 - Laser effect issue, intended texture filter mode
Small patch that should fix the inconsistent Light Laser rail effects. Set default gl_texturemode to GL_NEAREST, which takes advantage of the lower res, crunchy texture.
29 Dec 2023Developer post
Minor Update - v5.2.1 - O3M3 map fix and cl_hud_alpha default value set.
Big thanks to users posting bugs on the discord; they flagged 2 issues that I've fixed. Map O3M3: hard-lock with enemy spawning underground that couldn't be destroyed. cl_hud_alpha: misspelled this var in the config file, meaning some users ended up with no visible HUD on a first
22 Sep 2023Developer post
5.0.0 Full Release
BIG PATCH NOTES ---------------- Almost 2 years in development, not bad for a 1-person team. There's a lot more work under the hood to achieve most of these items, but this is easiest to read highlight. I focused as best as possible on improving the quality of life items for play
BIG PATCH NOTES
----------------
Almost 2 years in development, not bad for a 1-person team. There's a lot more work under the hood to achieve most of these items, but this is easiest to read highlight. I focused as best as possible on improving the quality of life items for players, smoothing out some rough edges. Content took a bit of a backseat, I did add 3 brand new campaign missions to round out the main campaign to 15 maps finally, but that's about the extend of what I can provide. This is a big enough change to warrant starting your game over from the beginning. Where possible your old save files should be ported to the new save-file format. I've also included a price drop! DEAD_HANDS getting more for less, quite a win-win.
GAMEPLAY
--------

3 Brand new maps, and 1 map rebuilt entirely from scratch.
all original 12 maps overhauled with extra detail and balance.
Ramshocks - can now hit mechs but will deal feedback damage.
Player can destory crystal map hazards.
Crystal hazard now plays particle effect when hitting player.
Player radar always set to [active] on-spawn.
Added Headlight for dark places, default bind is 'L'.
All mechs now have 3 'auto-config' slots. These are auto-populated based on player's CURRENT inventory availability, and split between 3 general roles.
Auto-configs can still be modified! they just won't save their modifications.
'Wreckage' skins for mechs and vehicles to make the destroyed ones easier to see.
'Shields active' and 'Shields disabled' particle effects for all units that have shields.
UI
--------

Hangar menu uses numbers and icons for mech stats, no more bar graphs.
fixed aspect ratio for 2D elements, no more stretching.
3D models for Hangar, Arming, Targeting views.
Player can toggle between 2D and 3D target armor diagrams.
Targeting arrow rotates 360 degrees on player's view to show target direction.
Fixed lock-on indicators.
Enemy variant abbreviations now show on targeting computer - ENE, BAL, etc.
Added 'Restart Mission' option to Pause Menu.
BALANCE
--------

Maps have been rebalanced on a better difficulty curve.
Rotary Plasma - 2-shot burst. Burn effect now a chance of burning.
Flak - improved shield damage, and small-target damage buff. 3-rnd burst instead of 4.
Missiles - all missiles given damage buff against buildings / turrets.
PAC - increased damage.
SFGA - damage propagation to adjoining mech part.
IMPROVEMENTS
------------

Small improvement to mech piece damage algorithm.
Added 3D clouds and backdrops to every map.
Better Line of Sight detection for rendering game objects, better overall average FPS.
Some particle effects changed / enhanced.
Added rock-column obstacle that matches the biome they're in.
Better collision detecion on buildings and environment objects.
Dead units and buildings replaced with non-interactive wreckage, improves FPS and network load.
AI pathfinding tuned up a little.
Improved rain/snow particle generation.
Reduced code and function calls where possible.
Mech leg direction based on velocity and smoothly rotates to heading.
Save file format simplified and cleaned up.
Shield-hit effects cleaner and more readable.
BUG FIXES
---------

Mech death animations and incorrect blown-off parts.
that annoying 'floating item' bug when mechs loses components.
Item divide by zero when running upgrade/downgrade.
Double-cockpit model issue.
Repair Bay not restoring player's ability to shoot.
Repair Bay consistency with functioning and repairing the correct pieces.
AI muzzle flash offsets.
Projectile trail offsets when first spawning.
AI targeting allied units that attacked it.
Save file unlocks actually fixed.
Original post
13 Sep 2023Developer post
5.0.0 - rc1 test
Right-click the game in your library. Go to 'Properties'. Click 'Betas'. Select `test-5.0.0-rc1` branch. play game normally.
Right-click the game in your library.
Go to 'Properties'.
Click 'Betas'.
Select `test-5.0.0-rc1` branch.
play game normally.
Original post
09 Sep 2023Developer post
5.0.0 - update #3
Almost the last leg of this journey here, the quick testing of the release without debug tools...but the release is looking good to go. It's been well over a year-and-a-half without major updates, what originally was supposed to be some minor changes turned into re-building large
04 Aug 2023Developer post
5.0.0 - update #2
Let's see, last update was in January... " I think end of Q1/2023 is realistic, but it might slide to Q2" - me in January 2023. That turned out to not exactly be realistic, Q3 is now looking to be the release window and maybe early Q4. Since that update I've refined and polished
13 Jan 2023Developer post
5.0.0 - When!?
I know its been almost a year since I've posted any update to the steam page, but I have continued work on the game where I can find the time. Originally I had only planned to do a few map updates and some code refinements for a hypothetical '4.0.0' release. This completely morph
14 Mar 2022Developer post
Patch Preview - 4.0.0
A little behind on the rollout of patch 4.0.0. Testing will be this week and I plan to release the patch by end of March 2022. A quick slice of what to expect in the patch: Fixed hard-crash deploy point selection bug. Rebuilt all campaign maps with entity, layout, and enemy updat
A little behind on the rollout of patch 4.0.0. Testing will be this week and I plan to release the patch by end of March 2022.
A quick slice of what to expect in the patch:

Fixed hard-crash deploy point selection bug.
Rebuilt all campaign maps with entity, layout, and enemy updates.
Refined several map objectives and added more environment detail.
Fixed issue with AI death animations / model removal.
3D mech models for Hangar and Arming menus.
3D Player and Target HUD diagrams.
Refactored AI stats per-difficulty level, reducing grind in earlier levels.
improved AI pathfinding to get slightly better at cornering.
and a few more items.
Stay tuned, its very much work in progress.
Original post

Updates & announcements

BIG PATCH NOTES

GAMEPLAY

UI

BALANCE

IMPROVEMENTS

BUG FIXES