Mars Tactics Release Date

12 Aug 2026Developer post

Dev Update 2026 Q2: Critical Playtest

Hi everyone. I know this Q2 update is super late. But hopefully it's better now than never. June and July was a really intense period of development and I didn't have spare time to post anything. But thankfully, on July 31, the final critical playtest began. And I'm happy to tell

Hi everyone. I know this Q2 update is super late. But hopefully it's better now than never.

June and July was a really intense period of development and I didn't have spare time to post anything. But thankfully, on July 31, the final critical playtest began. And I'm happy to tell you the result is what I was hoping for!

You guys know I’ve been confident about the tactical layer for a long time. But the strategy layer has been in development hell for three years. It went through 11 total painful re-designs. I even considered switching the strategy layer to a roguelike design.

However, last year I got a hunch that maybe we turned the corner. A prior playtest yielded positive signs, but also many questions. And so it wasn't until last week when I watched hundreds of people crawl all over Mars and have fun that it confirmed my gut feeling. The sandbox is SANDBOXING!

For me, this is the biggest milestone since the 2022 Next Fest demo got the whole party started. Of course, I'm not saying MT will be a good game. Only you will decide that. But I'm definitely feeling the best since starting this project five years ago.

The Good

Despite a lot of bugs and balance problems (see below), this playtest is confirming that the strategy layer is actually fun.

The testers are trying different strats and exchanging ideas. Managing their Mars economies this way or that. Exploring tech and ideology trees. Coming to terms with their morality and how they treat their workers and soldiers (and prisoners). And of course using all kinds of creative tactics on the battlefield. Basically, exactly what I envisioned and hoped for. The last section of this post are my favorite screenshots and quotes from the playtest so you can see for yourself.

This build includes ALL of the game's systems. So although it will launch into early access, it will be fairly late-stage. Here's a look at some new stuff and things that got a major overhaul.

Ground vehicles are finally a thing! They arrive on the map to become stationary objects that offer fire support, aid, etc. You can also hop in and drive off to escape the battlefield. Feedback has been very positive (especially the BattleBus™).

You can now choose where exactly your squads and vehicles will deploy on the battlefield. It adds to the strategy and creates new ways to link the tactical and strategy layers.

Outpost management gets the new Vox mechanic, which is a window into how your people are feeling (at the bottom of the screen).

Soldiers can now be assigned to non-combat tasks. They won't be the backbone of your economy (their salaries are too expensive), but soldiers don't require buildings to generate output. So they're very flexible. For example, if you bomb the hell out of an enemy outpost while capturing it and all the civilians are busy repairing buildings, you can lean on your soldiers to fill the gaps.

I switched the tech tree back to a big linear thing you can plan around. I think this gives the whole campaign the structure it was missing. Pictured here is the rebel tech tree.

Lastly, there are a lot new Earth guns. Russ (ahintoflime) did an amazing job with the models. And I made sure they sound good enough to make Michael Mann smile. I will share a video showcase about them soon.

The Bad

But the playtest has not been all kumbaya and rainbow farts.

The biggest problem has been balance and pacing. People are getting absolutely crushed. The difficulty is pretty straightforward to fix, but flow and pacing is more complicated in a big chaotic sandbox. So I have a lot of work left in this area.
The UX has improved a lot in the last three months. Enough for testers to actually interact with and have fun in the sandbox. But they still hit the wall in some areas. There is a moderate amount of work left here.
The game is well tool-tipped, but the onboarding is severely lacking. So now that the strategy layer design is truly finalized, I can start working on a tutorial. (If you've played a tactics or 4X game recently with a great tutorial, please let me know in the comments I will study it.)
Finally, there are a lot of nasty bugs. However, none are existential and I’m already making good progress here. Thank you to all the playtesters o7

What's Next

This post is just to give you an update on how things are going. But I know the release date is on your mind. So I'll just say what I can now.

Basically, I don't know yet. I only just finished hotfixing everything on Sunday. And now I'm examining the feedback and estimating the remaining effort. And then the publisher has to find a good date based on external variables. So stay tuned. As soon as it's decided, I will make another post. But just know that getting a good playtest result was critical to everything.

The last good news is, because the playtest went well and I don’t have to make anymore big design changes, I can start planning the demo. It will be released after I stabilize the build and finish the tutorial. But the goal is for a meaty demo that previews both factions and both layers. I hope you’ll enjoy it for many hours.

Playtest Highlights

Here are my favorite screenshots and quotes from the playtest so far. They probably won't make total sense to you, but hopefully you get the vibes of the gameplay. (Some light spoilers ahead from the early game, but nothing major. There's no linear story in the sandbox.) Spelling and grammar edited for clarity.

VladCrafter: "Okay, looks like I found a way to reliably kill rogue bots."

Pride: "Turn 2 victory, they spawned into my guns :D"

wynk182: "Uh oh" (enemy arrives for their counter-assault)

Iris 'Piña' Silbermond: "I present to you, the 'Super Sneeze', firing 9 pellets (one whole small energy mag) per trigger pull, boasting a decent range at 60% at 10 tiles, and a bayonet... This action energy shotgun has you covered in all manner of short range encounters."

Fire & Glory: "I wish I had a duffel bag." (Screenshot taken during a heist mission.)

Cuddlefission: "Having an 'all hands on deck' defense against a counterattack."

Triangular Andangler: "Very early game, some of my people just carry three bombs and no gun."
XROM: "The best defense is offence so just grab your staff and charge forward, replace losses with new conscripts and keep rolling."
Baron le'Posore: "Many open spaces on the map are a potential killzone for corporate DRMs and rifles. Use smokes or dig a hole with charges. Sometimes it's the only way."
TrainTrack: "There's a bunch of tricks you can do, like suppressing an enemy and then throwing a grenade at them (since a suppressed enemy won't scramble)."
Colonel Jerry: "I threw a mining charge at a corpo just to have it slide 4-6 tiles away through the sand before stopping right in front of a group of some unfortunate workers. Something set off a chain reaction of explosions killing a few more. It was hilariously unfortunate, but also a little frustrating."
Cuddlefission: "The different means of recruiting soldiers and the 'you are what you do' governance system are really fun from a narrative perspective."
Haider: "My shotgun unit was injured in the first wave and has survived probably 6 battles, still haven’t healed him yet. Just running around half health pelting people in the face at point blank range."
Phart: "My fourth attempt and I survived the counter attack. I managed to get a squad of 13 together between the migrants and converting civilians."
Frumentarius: "I did try to attack one of the robot uprising outposts. One dog wiped out my entire squad with one attack."
Aidante: "Feedback on bots: terrifying, but felt good to fight them. Fought four with six guys at a robot rebellion site that spawned right next to a recent conquest site and made it out with three KIA. Got lucky with mining charges on two of them, found out the hard way about Zone of Control."
Supreme_Overlord: "I managed to take over comms using only two spies and instigating a worker riot. Got it on the fourth restart. The trick is to get both of your spies with guns close to each other before you start shooting, and then just run away while picking them off. The last guy surrendered after one of my guys killed two of his teammates in front of him with a shotgun when they rushed me down."
Krutchen: "I usually recruit like 4-6 workers to be soldiers and spam explosives, I've used the governance of commons boost, multitasking, and full metal jumpsuit for faster training. Generally I'm rushing fab research for scrapping and putting all my guys on research, then training them and rushing producing at least one sprayer coilgun for suppression. If you get shotguns off your first encounter prioritize getting those assigned and abuse overwatch with them in urban environments when you're not hucking explosives to soften up the enemy."

Thank you very much playtesters! If you are curious, the playtest is organized via Discord. It is open to anyone, but access is unlocked slowly to ensure a steady stream of fresh eyes. I know that's annoying but I hope you understand it meaningfully helps development.

OK, that's it for this time. Let me know if you have any questions. Don't forget to drop suggestions of tactics or 4X games with good tutorials for me to study. And finally, thanks for your support all these years. We're almost home.

Original post

23 Apr 2026Developer post

World Setting and Asymmetric Factions

Crisis on Earth The 2020s were rough, but the next decade was even worse. More wars, political polarization and sputtering growth. And yeah, the billionaires only grew more powerful. But for our story in Mars Tactics, the key thing is what happened with energy. Global oil and gas

Crisis on Earth

The 2020s were rough, but the next decade was even worse. More wars, political polarization and sputtering growth. And yeah, the billionaires only grew more powerful.

But for our story in Mars Tactics, the key thing is what happened with energy. Global oil and gas markets began fracturing with the wars in Eastern Europe and the Middle East. Exports of solar, wind and nuclear components became restricted on national security concerns. In the new normal, geopolitics trumped market dynamics. All of this collided with long-term trends pushing energy demand higher.

The surge in energy prices decimated global trade and accelerated the destruction of state finances. Inevitably, one day in the late 2030s, government bond markets seized up one by one. Confidence in fiat debt was rocked to the core. And a global economic depression followed.

All illustrations here by Zohei Tanabe.

It's against this doom-and-gloom backdrop that the long-forgotten soil samples from Mars finally returned home. For decades, our rovers and orbiters had surveyed the red planet. But it wasn't until researchers on Earth could deploy all their scientific tools that they noticed something strange in the regolith: some Martian rocks exhibited powerful but stable magnetic fields.

Suspecting a new kind of superconducting material, scientists dubbed it Areomagnic Fluxite. The press and influencers just called it Flux for short. (Previously, some guy incorrectly called it Redox.) Research labs around the world began one-upping each other to see how much energy could be placed inside these magnetic fields. Pretty soon, they achieved energy densities hundreds of times greater than existing chemical batteries.

The implications were Earth-shattering. With better batteries, we didn't need fusion or dyson spheres. Existing technologies were more than enough. Deep-offshore wind farms. Subterranean geothermal plants. Remote fission reactors. Solar farms splashed across the deserts. All of it became practical with batteries that could transport energy economically from remote areas to end consumers. The smart grid of the future wasn't crystals and lasers. It's just tons and tons of efficient batteries.

Space Gold Rush

Overnight, governments and corporations across the world began mobilizing mining missions to Mars. Flux could be the miracle solution to our energy and economic woes. Preparations focused on the next Mars transfer window in 2043, when distance to the red planet would be shortest.

But as everyone geared up for a long race, someone launched a surprise test-flight: Lodestar Corporation. The company had been developing ion rocketry for decades. Flux batteries supercharged their proprietary tech, putting Lodestar in the perfect position.

Established rivals scoffed at the newcomer, but doubters were quickly silenced. Even at a comfortable 1G burn, Lodestar's test-rocket reached Mars in less than 10 days. The space gold rush was over before it began. The winner had been crowned.

Most (but not all) nations rallied around Lodestar. The U.N. awarded the company a mining charter for a region on Mars. Supply contracts for Flux began pouring in. Nevermind that Lodestar had zero experience in resource extraction. We chose to believe the feel-good story we desperately needed: the Lodestar guys were our genius saviors. The company cashed in on the vibes and the hype, raising hundreds of billions in an IPO to fund their Mars build-out.

Edge Cases

Lodestar's inaugural mission blasted off in record time. The plan was for hundreds of drones and robots to lay the groundwork on Mars and begin mining, while dozens of humans monitored remotely from nearby outposts.

But things went sour from the get-go. We've never been to Mars, much less collected data there for training robots. So Lodestar prepared its bots in simulations on Earth. And these sims were a disaster, failing to capture critical edge cases. (It didn't help that training was a rush job to please investors eager to stay ahead of rivals.)

So on Mars, the bots struggled with everything. Martian geology confused the drilling machines. Nav systems failed when facing terrain and lighting conditions not found in their datasets. Electrostatic caused calibration drift in the actuators. Motors overheated in the thin atmosphere. And teleoperations were a total mess thanks to sensors polluted by radiation noise and magnetic dust.

Re-training the bots remotely from Earth would take months or years due to poor bandwidth and lag between the two planets. Doing it locally would require building data centers on Mars and convincing pampered AI engineers to relocate to the harsh frontier.

The Great Pivot

As setbacks began pummeling Lodestar's stock price, executives quickly pivoted to their only real option: human labor. Forget the bots. Send in the malleable fleshy things. The second mission was all-human. Same for the third. And the fourth. And so on.

Executives announce the great pivot to analysts. Stock rips +22%. (Work-in-progress illustration.)

Except all the mining protocols were designed around bots, which are replaceable. Retooling operations to account for human safety would take time. The company was already behind schedule. Shareholders expected Flux shipments. And rivals would arrive on Mars eventually.

So executives marshalled a push to just get going. Bonuses, quotas, peer pressure, intimidation, and every other trick in the book to get more bodies in the mines. Safety concerns were waved off. Workers were told to learn on the job. Managers instilled bravado and a frontier mentality. Are you tough enough for Mars?

Miners rose to the challenge. And Flux shipments started to flow. But it was bloodbath. Workers perished in every way you can imagine. Shaft collapses. Suit punctures. Equipment malfunctions. Dust sickness. Freezing to death. Decompression accidents. Mental breakdowns.

Back on Earth, Lodestar's PR team sprang into action. Instead of covering up the fatalities, they leaned into them. Each dead miner was celebrated as a martyr. A legit real-life hero who died for Earth. And the public ate it up. Everyone already accepted that Mars was dangerous. The same way we honor firefighters without really questioning how or why they died. Don't worry about all that. Enjoy a good cry and hit the like button.

Nothing to Lose

But on Mars, martyrdom was the last thing on anyone's mind. Workers felt scared. And trapped. Quitting was not an option. Buried deep in the employment contract was the 3-year clause: if you didn't finish your term, you were on the hook for the millions it would cost to ship you home.

Without regulators or the press or anyone else to turn to on Mars, organization was the only path forward for workers. And so, Mars First Labor Union was born. The union demanded workplace safety. Proper training. Better equipment. Geological surveys. Med bays. More down time between shifts. Re-negotiated work contracts.

Mars First!

The demands were reasonable. But the company didn't fall for it. Give labor organizers an inch, and they'll take the planet. And with people on Earth eager for affordable air conditioning, executives calculated the public would support a harsher stance. After all, Martian miners were well compensated for the risk. Earth is in dire straits. Suck it up and get to work.

So the union was crushed. Its leaders punished. Worker comms on Mars were restricted. Video messages to families back home were scrubbed by compliance agents. (All traffic between the two planets ran through the company's satellite network.) More corporate security arrived on Mars each week. Strikes and sit-ins were forcefully ended. Suck it up and get back to work.

The crackdown was effective. And Flux shipments picked up. But workers adapted too. They established secret radio frequencies. Developed underground resistance networks. Some began tinkering with battery-powered coilguns. And the more ambitious ones began dreaming bigger. It's one thing to seize the means of production. It's another to seize an epoch-defining technology.

Everyone could feel a looming showdown. The stink of animosity was in the walls. The only question was what would set it off. What would be the spark.

WHICH SIDE ARE YOU ON???

So that's what happened leading up to the start of the game. But I want to stress that your faction and the enemy's faction are BOTH fully customizable. Name, logo, stock ticker, etc can all be changed. Mars First and Lodestar are just the default names. Their country origins and other details aren't stressed too hard in pre-made cutscenes and stuff. Basically, the sandbox tries to not get in the way of whatever revolutionary or counter-revolutionary fantasy you have in your head.

Mars First Labor Union

As the labor faction, you begin right where this story ends. The opening "tutorial" mission is a worker riot where you seize your first outpost. What you do after that is up to you. Fight your way off the planet and expose the corporation's crimes? Capitalize Flux for your own gains? Something else entirely? At early access launch, there will be 3.5 endings for the labor faction. If the game is successful, I plan to add more endings to reflect more socioeconomic paths.

What makes the labor faction unique:

You can design coilguns powered by Flux batteries. These weapons are manufactured via local supply chains on Mars.
Workers and soldiers do not expect to be paid a salary in the early stages of the conflict (until you make contact with Earth). And depending on which ideologies you adopt, you can abolish the concept of wage labor completely.
At the beginning of the campaign, the people on Mars are more sympathetic to your cause. That makes local recruitment of soldiers and spies easier.
You begin cut off from Earth diplomacy. By the time you make contact, most nations have a negative opinion of you.
Secret.

Lodestar Corp.

As the capital faction, the story begins a few weeks later. Lodestar executives on Earth initially dismiss the uprising as just more unrest. But when things really spin out of control, they call you in as the new Director of Mars Operations. By the time you arrive on Mars, the rebels have captured large chunks of company territory. So you begin the campaign on the backfoot. After that, it's up to you to obey or ignore shareholder interests. At EA launch, capital will have 3 endings.

What makes the capital faction unique:

If you do as you're told, the entire might of Lodestar Corporation is at your disposal. Research teams on Earth can boost tech progress. PR can assist manipulating public opinion. Procurement department can deliver equipment for cheap.
Whatever you can't procure internally, you can buy on Earth's markets. Guns, mercs, vehicles, building prefabs, etc. Markets open up a lot of strategic freedom from the get go. Hire one elite sniper? Sure. Hire a bunch of cheap grunts? Up to you. The only limit is your operating budget.
You start the campaign having already made diplomatic contact with Earth nations. Keeping them on your side is critical for mid and late-game progress.
The hardest research topic in the game is fixing the robots. Capital begins the campaign with this topic already partially completed. So if you choose to pursue automation, you have a shorter path to having bots replace humans both in the mines and on the battlefield.
Secret.

Thanks for reading this gigantic wall of text to the end. I have zero experience with creative writing, so if you have feedback let me know. I'm not exactly trying to tell a story. I just want to set the scene and let you tell your own stories in the sandbox.

Yuji (MH)

Original post

13 Apr 2026Developer post

Delay until later in 2026

Hi everyone. I'm delaying the early access release from May until later this year. The exact new date will not be known for a while, but I thought it's important to get this info to you ASAP. So I am telling you exactly what I know today and will update you again as soon as I hav

Hi everyone. I'm delaying the early access release from May until later this year. The exact new date will not be known for a while, but I thought it's important to get this info to you ASAP. So I am telling you exactly what I know today and will update you again as soon as I have more info.

Besides that are 3 things I want to communicate to you. Appreciate if you will read until the end.

1. I'm sorry

This was a really difficult decision. I get many kind of messages from fans of the game. People going through a difficult time who say it's the only thing they're looking forward to, soldiers eager to try before being sent to the frontlines, etc. And you guys have played a key role in development with your ideas and feedback. We've established strong trust and built this game together. That's why I'm truly sorry for letting you down with this delay. I worked as hard as possible. But it was not enough.

2. Why delay?

If you've been following development, you know last June I switched the strategy layer to real-time-with-pause (tactical layer is still turn-based). Since then things have been going very well and I finished building all the main systems on schedule in December. At that point, I could sit down and play the whole thing. This is when I became confident it will be the game I always wanted to make. The sandbox is rich, and tactical, and strategic, and political, and procedural. It's everything I wanted it to be.

But I underestimated how complicated this sandbox has become. In hindsight it's obvious. In this game you fight a war, cultivate spies, set up logistics, queue production, develop research, navigate labor strikes, mold social ideology, and manage diplomacy on Mars and Earth. For me, it's easy to play because of course I designed it and can see everything under-the-hood. But for playtesters, there was a lot of friction and lack of info that prevented them from enjoying the sandbox.

So almost all of 2026 has been about polish, balance and bug fixes. I thought 4 months would be enough time. But I was wrong. There's a famous saying the last 20% takes 80% of the time. I'm learning the hard way this is very true in game dev.

That's why I decided to delay. I need more time to polish and balance. I'm really happy with the underlying game. Both strategy and tactical layers. But I don't want this design to go to waste due to friction, which is something I can definitely fix with more time.

3. What's next

As soon as I get a few more issues resolved, the public playtest will resume and then I will have a better idea of the release window. Meanwhile, unlike me, the artists are completing their excellent work on time. So expect more updates, beginning later this week when I finally introduce both factions in detail. For now, here are some new screens.

After many years of searching, I finally found a great animator. Say hello to kambru from Argentina, who is bringing to life something I've kept under wraps: robots. This doggo has excellent mobility and crowd-control abilities. I will share more details about robots soon.

The corporate mechanics of the Capital campaign are ready to be shown publicly, so expect a deep dive soon. And as you can see here, ZOHEI is busy making awesome illustrations for the strategy layer and also cutscenes.

You guys asked for more customization options and guns from Earth. Ahintoflime (aka Russ) is COOKING.

And yes, a demo is coming. It will feature both factions and a slice of the strategy layer. The demo must meet the threshold for polish, so I don't know the exact date yet. But it will be before EA release.

If you don't mind annoying bugs and friction, you can also join Discord to sign up for the playtest. I learned over the years that having a steady flow of fresh eyeballs is critical for good feedback. That's why playtest access is unlocked in chronological waves based on when you join Discord. So if you can stomach another social media platform in your life, please join up. It's a very friendly community guided by a crack mod team.

Lastly, big thanks to Hooded Horse for their support in this difficult decision. They have been a steady hand as I navigate my first game. They're working hard to ensure MT will be the best quality possible on release.

Ok, thanks for reading until the end. If you want to yell at me or ask me anything, please go ahead in the comments. I want to hear you out and be transparent with what's going on. It's the first step to rebuilding trust.

Thank you again for all your patience and support.

Yuji (MH)

Original post

31 Dec 2025Developer post

Dev Update 2025 Q4

Hey guys, I hope you're having a relaxing end to the year. It's been a very productive 3 months for Mars Tactics so let me give you an update. The TLDR is the strategy layer is going great. As I wrote in June, switching it to real-time-with-pause (RTWP) was the magic trick that s

Hey guys, I hope you're having a relaxing end to the year. It's been a very productive 3 months for Mars Tactics so let me give you an update.

The TLDR is the strategy layer is going great. As I wrote in June, switching it to real-time-with-pause (RTWP) was the magic trick that solved my big design problems. In August there was a successful playtest confirming this approach. Since then things have been falling in to place.

Literal and Physical

Before RTWP, I created a lot of mechanics to try and make the strategy layer more fun. Over the years this built up too much complexity, which I then tried to streamline. But since switching to RTWP, all this gunk has just melted away. The path of least resistance has become to make things literal. Which is great because that's what I always wanted for a sandbox.

So now the strategy layer works probably as you imagine. You capture mines. Dig up redox. Move it to spaceports for export. Invest the rest in your power grid. Spend energy to grow food and logistics. Resources and workers all physically exists somewhere. Vehicles are literal and carry stuff around the map. In RTWP all this stuff just works and doesn't need special rules.

Everything is literal. When workers run away from enemy strongholds, you will see them physically on the map scurrying toward you like this. If you release POWs, you will see them limping away back to enemy territory.

Martian Statecraft

Diplomacy is the big new thing that ties everything together and unlocks paths to winning the game.

Earth is the end consumer for all the resources you're fighting over on Mars. And diplomacy is the mechanic through which you trade those resources for power, money, tech, weapons, vehicles, soldiers and anything else you can't make on Mars. As you develop connections, you will be given unique missions. To max out a relationship, you will have to get your hands dirty on the battlefield. Eventually this leads to unique endings.

And to be clear, you can ignore diplomacy and just pursue your own little cottage communist utopia on Mars. But governments of Earth might not be too happy. If you don't bend the knee, be prepared to fight.

Missions and rewards offered by each nation depend on their economic ideology and country characteristics. The U.S. has deep-pocketed investors. Russia is an expert in information warfare. France might gift you an Airbus dropship. There are also non-sovereign entities like journalists, investors, hackers, activists, etc.

Non-Linear Research

I decided to go with a non-linear research tree. I think that's best for a sandbox. So you will need to acquire a working equipment prototype or capture a location or get assistance from an Earth nation before you can begin researching some topics. My goal is for each playthrough to be different.

Navigating a non-linear tech tree can be overwhelming, so I added tags. Please give me other tips to improve the UI.

Gunsmith research gets it's own mini-mechanic. Making a redox coilgun involves many parts: the frame, battery, stock, scope, attachments, etc. Previously each one these things had a separate research topic, but it felt overwhelming cuz each one comes with multiple choices. So I designed this new format.

You're busy running the rebellion, so your research team will present only their best proposals. Pick one or tell them "it's not good enough!" and they'll come back tomorrow with other ideas. Their ideas are picked from a pool. What's in the pool is determined by your Gunsmith Level.

There's a lot more to share, but this is getting long enough. Capital's unique mechanics, autonomous support units, new Gunsmith attachments, relic building, new progression system and traits, unit customization, armor overhaul, cutscenes, new music, end game units and locations, etc. I will share more soon. (On that note, lmk in comments if beefier updates like this are better or smaller ones with like 1-2 screenshots once a week?)

You asked for more unit customization and provided great ideas. Russ (ahintoflime) is cooking up amazing new models.

Well, time to say goodbye to 2025. Less than half a year left until release. I guess it should be a stressful time for me. But tbh in the 4.5 years making this game, I feel comfortable because the strategy layer is finally in a good place.

Thanks again for sticking with me this year. Wishing you a very happy 2026.

-Yuji (MH)

Original post

09 Nov 2025Developer post

First Look: Mortars

Hi everyone. With development marching on, I'm happy to finally start sharing details about later-stage mechanics. Mortars on Mars Mortars are a mid/late game weapon. They are introduced to Mars by mercenaries hired by the corporation to put down the labor rebellion. Good effect

Hi everyone. With development marching on, I'm happy to finally start sharing details about later-stage mechanics.

Mortars on Mars

Mortars are a mid/late game weapon. They are introduced to Mars by mercenaries hired by the corporation to put down the labor rebellion.

Good effect on target.

Mortars work as you probably imagine: deploy the launcher, load the shell, aim, and fire. They can target any location on the battlefield regardless of distance, which adds a whole new dimension to engagements.

Currently, mortars support explosive and smoke shells. These have similar stats to frag and smoke grenades. However, explosive shells cause suppression over a wider area than frag grenades.

Explosive shells also deform the terrain, creating little craters that units can dive into for cover.

Teamwork

However, mortars have big downsides which require teamwork to overcome.

For starters, mortars are very heavy and bulky. A soldier carrying nothing but a mortar launcher can only move 5 tiles vs the usual 8 tiles. And that's just the launcher. You'll still need someone to carry the shells.

Mortars also require more action points to use than a standard weapon:

deploy (2 AP) = must be performed once before firing can commence
reload (1 AP) = can be performed on any launcher within 1 tile range
aim and fire (2 AP)

In my testing I found ideally you need 2 soldiers to operate a mortar effectively: one loading and the other shooting. But you can get even more efficient like in this screenshot.

Accuracy

Another big weakness is accuracy. When aiming your mortar, you will see a ring representing the radius of where the shell can land. The farther away you're targeting, the bigger this ring becomes.

Firing on the same location does improve accuracy, but this is a limited buff as your targets are unlikely to sit still. So overall, mortars are quite inaccurate by default.

The yellow ring indicates where the shell can land. The farther you aim, the less accurate you get.

But here too, you can make-up for crappy accuracy with teamwork. FPV drones and other equipment can use the "Forward Observer" action to mark an area of the map. Mortars targeting inside these observed areas are more accurate.

The blue circle indicates a "forward observed" area. Targeting inside this area greatly improves accuracy.

Defending Against Mortars

From the mid game, you will begin facing enemy squads with mortars in some missions. As mentioned above, these engagements have a whole different dimension to them. You'll have to adapt new tactics and counter-measures to keep your troops alive:

Suppression: mortars require 2 AP to fire, so suppressing enemy mortarmen down to 1 AP will prevent them from firing this turn. However, getting close enough to suppress is not easy.
Break LOS: the enemy only fires at areas its faction can see directly. So if you break line-of-sight with all of their units, you are safe. Just be sure you didn't miss any pesky enemy FPV drones that might be watching your position. And don't forget that enemy orbital coverage gives them visibility over the whole battlefield. So you'll want to hack or destroy enemy satellites before a big offensive.
Smoke: mortarmen cannot see or fire from inside smoke. So during mortar vs mortar engagements, you can try dropping smoke shells on enemy mortar teams to neutralize them for a few turns until the smoke clears. And since smoke disperses over a pretty wide area, this tactic requires less precision than hitting them with explosive shells.

Dropping smokes on an enemy mortar team. If they can't see, they can't fire.

Overall, I'm excited for you guys to try mortars. I think they really add a new dimension to battles which as a long-time Xcom player I honestly haven't felt before. And since projectiles in this game are all physical, I just love watching the shells streak across the map and go boom. Even when they miss, it's quite satisfying.

Watch on YouTube

Let me know if you have questions. And please check out this video. I'm having a lot of fun making these music videos. Thanks again for supporting the game.

-Yuji (MH)

Original post

28 Sep 2025Developer post

Release Date Announced: May 2026

Hey guys, based on recent progress with the strategy layer and good feedback from playtesters, I finally feel confident to nail down a release date: May 2026. This will be an early-access release, but development is in a pretty mature stage. So you can expect all major features a

Hey guys, based on recent progress with the strategy layer and good feedback from playtesters, I finally feel confident to nail down a release date: May 2026.

This will be an early-access release, but development is in a pretty mature stage. So you can expect all major features and mechanics, multiple endings for each faction, and basically the main meal. In fact, looking at the remaining items, I think EA proceeds will be invested mostly in art and presentation. But I will share a detailed roadmap prior to release so you can decide to wait or jump in.

Furthermore, I know EA is a sensitive topic, so I just wanted to share my clear thoughts with you. I don't want to languish in EA for years. For this game, it doesn't make sense. Because MT has been developed in a SUPER transparent way from the start. So, I think I've already collected most of the benefits from being in the open. Plus, I'm afraid of losing momentum after entering EA, which is a natural thing to happen after hitting a milestone. That's why I waited as long as possible before EA. I wanted the shortest path possible to 1.0.

Moving on. In case you didn't catch the new trailer, here it is. Big thank you to the magazine of my childhood, PC Gamer, for featuring the game.

Watch on YouTube

Looking Ahead

Next up, in the coming months, you can expect a first look at story cinematics, a detailed look at the capital campaign, and finally, a proper permanent demo. As well as continuing updates from playtesting.

I'm active on Steam forums, Reddit, Discord, and YouTube (links below), so please let me know if you have any questions. And if you haven't already, don't forget to wishlist the game. Number-go-up really pleases the algorithm gods.

Finally, it's been a long 4 years, and there's still a lot of work ahead. But for today, I just wanted to thank each of you for sticking with me. The community has gifted me amazing ideas, tested the hell out of every mechanic and button and tooltip, and most importantly, provided tons of encouragement every day. In return, I will continue busting my ass to deliver a good product for you to enjoy.

-Yuji

Join the Mars Tactics Community

That’s it for now! You can follow along and join the discussion here:

Discord | BlueSky | YouTube | Reddit

Original post

12 Sep 2025Developer post

Playtest Insights - RTWP, Logistics and World Map (Sept 2025)

Hi everyone. The playtest re-started last month so I just wanted to share some progress. These are just small observations and not official patch notes or promised features or anything. I know some of you guys like to follow along but don't have time to monitor Discord, so I'll s

Hi everyone. The playtest re-started last month so I just wanted to share some progress. These are just small observations and not official patch notes or promised features or anything. I know some of you guys like to follow along but don't have time to monitor Discord, so I'll summarize the playtest highlights here for you.

Big takeaways so far

Switching the strategy layer from turn-based to real-time-with-pause (RTWP) went well. It was a huge change, but feedback has been great. I wish I switched earlier. Now I understand why Xcom and Jagged Alliance went with RTWP for their strategy layers.
Testers were mostly OK with the more streamlined resources and reduced micromanagement. But some aspects will tilt back toward more granularity in the upcoming builds based on feedback.
Labor management and outpost management are feeling good. Giving speeches, paying bonuses, ordering decrees and enacting ideology policies is working as intended. It's delivering the right experience and is very open-ended but without all the prior micromanagement. But needs more content and polish.
However, logistics was a big pain point for almost everyone. So I modified it (see details below).
World map still lacking strategic structure so I'm continuing to experiment with it (see below).
Tactical layer was already feeling great, so no big changes there. One focus point in the last patch was overwatch. I'm not a big fan of the overwatch meta in tactics games. So in this game it's weak on purpose. But previously it was too weak. So I buffed it. Roughly speaking it's about half as powerful as it is in modern Xcom. And I noticed people were actually using it now to interrupt enemy actions. I think it's in a good place now.
One surprise for me was Infiltration. It's a small side mechanic, but it got a lot of positive feedback. First, it's actually useful (for example players liked starting a battle with a spy behind enemy lines providing visibility). And second, it's very thematic for an insurgency. So I will expand it more. And yes, in the Capital campaign you will uses Infiltration to place spies inside the rebellion.

On the world map, infiltration agents perform useful tasks at enemy locations. And if a battle breaks out there, they spawn as undercover civilians. If they don't break their disguise, they can migrate to a new location after the battle. Overall, I will expand Infiltration more.

Logistics

The prior logistics design (as explained in this video) ended up being too harsh. Players felt very restricted and struggled to move around the world map. That's kind of the point of logistics I guess, but the testers are right. It just didn't feel good. So I made the big switch to now actually managing a fleet of squad vehicles. So logistics is again less abstracted. We'll see how this goes.

Sorry for the grainy gif. Steam limits me to 5MB uploads. Anyway, here a squad is walking, then gets in a vehicle and drives off. The point is logistics are physical, not abstracted. However, this needs more thorough testing.

World map

In all previous designs, the world map was square. However, most players felt lost about where to go and overwhelmed by enemies attacking from too many directions. So now I'm experimenting with different map shapes while maintaining a procedural sandbox.

One example of a rectangular world map. It's procedurally generated and still very sandboxy with random hidden points of interest, but the shape could give the campaign more structure. However, I'm still feeling this out and it will evolve with more testing.

Next focus

Continue to test and refine above things. In particular, RTWP has been a HUGE change and was received positively, so it's forcing me to re-think yet again what is the right amount of abstraction/granularity for the strategy layer.
FPV drones
Full gunsmith implementation. The new 3D models look sooooo good I can't wait to share them. Russ (ahintoflime) did an amazing job.
More vehicles on the world map (dropship, train)
Robots
Beginning to test early Capital campaign + Earth interactions

FPV drone chasing its target.

BTW, here's a nice compact playtest story from Tsar Lord. Should give you a more direct feel for the game from a player's perspective. Slightly edited for brevity.

on the latest run i simply put everyone i could recruit into one squad, handed them mining charges and just enough guns to apply suppression, and rolled through outpost after outpost picking up more people along the way. by the time i attacked the comms center to call earth, i had an 18 rebel deathstack in the squad. still lost like 5 or 6 against the tan corporate soldiers, they are not a joke. the tide in that fight didn't actually turn in my favor til i captured a machine gun from the first one that i downed. in prior runs i'd been focused on resource conservation and trying to build a lasting resistance so i could get into the details of the gunsmith system and the espionage and research, but this time i actually played the game like a revolutionary and just threw as many bodies as i could muster at the problem until we defeated the superior force. looking at it through that lens i think the difficulty does make narrative sense and it forced me to adapt playstyles.

Finally, I have to tell you about goose's incredible playtest story. It's very complicated so I will paraphrase: goose lost all soldiers and territory, effectively losing the game. But still had a spy at an enemy location. That spy managed to trigger a new labor uprising and took over the location. It became goose's new home base where new soldiers were recruited, who eventually won back control and contacted Earth. TBH, I didn't even know the game continues if you have a spy. But I will definitely make it a proper feature. The resistance is never truly over.

Alright that's it. If people find this interesting, let me know and I will post this again.

And one more thing: please tune in to PC Gamer's PC Gaming Show Tokyo Direct at Sept 28 at 9am PDT / 12 noon EDT / 4pm UTC / 5pm BST / 1am JST!

-Yuji (MH)

Original post

01 Jul 2025Developer post

Dev Update 2025 Q2

Hey guys, thanks for checking in on the game again. This quarter is when the strategy layer design finally came together for me. The latest build has not yet been tested, but based on my own time with it I think I've got the right recipe. So I'm happy to finally share details pub

Hey guys, thanks for checking in on the game again. This quarter is when the strategy layer design finally came together for me. The latest build has not yet been tested, but based on my own time with it I think I've got the right recipe.

So I'm happy to finally share details publicly about the strategy layer design. I prepared this video for playtesters to get them up to speed with all the new mechanics. If you are interested in a deep dive, feel free to take a look.

Watch on YouTube

And if you don't have time to watch it, here's the TLDR

The core strategy layer game loop was ripped up and re-designed to front-load rewards. Each battle will offer
- immediately useful rewards like soldiers, guns, logi capacity, research topics, etc
- immediately investable resource flows to shape long-term strategy
Resources design has changed from stockpiling to flows. After capturing infrastructure, you don't have to wait to slowly harvest the yield and grow your stockpile. Instead, you can immediately allocate the resource output flow.
Mars map has been re-organized, combining individual mines and outposts into bigger clumps of infrastructure you will battle over
- Civilian Infrastructure = provides soldiers and fuels labor and government efforts
- Energy Infrastructure = provides better weapons (for Labor) and cash (for Capital), and fuels research and spying
- Logistics Infrastructure = allows moving more soldiers and equipment across Mars, and strengthens your manufacturing operations
- Settlements = special campaign milestone locations with unique functions
- Points of interest = various hidden locations for special events and missions
Research can now be unlocked by capturing specific locations. So you can work through the research tree as usual, or jump ahead by winning battles. Another example of front-loading rewards.
Social currencies have finally been implemented. Used for various things, including paying salaries and unlocking long-term governance policies.
And lastly, the strategy layer changed from turn-based to real-time with pause.

Mars now is organized into Civilian, Energy, and Logistics infrastructure sectors.

Government policies for Labor faction (very early implementation).

Labor micromanagement has been streamlined. But the consequences are the same. Your own workers will still turn on you if you allow them. (Yes, even in the Labor campaign.)

How will you treat your workers?

I don't know why but strategy layer feels better in real-time with pause. I wonder if that's why Xcom UFO Defense and Jagged Alliance devs did the same.

I'm now in the final stages of getting the new build into playtester hands. Hopefully it goes well and then I'll know better about demo and release timing.

Thank you for your support and your patience. Last month marked exactly 4 years since I began sketching stuff in a notebook and wrote the first lines of code. I never thought it would take this long, but the project is still going strong. And most of all I'm relieved to make meaningful progress with the strategy layer. This was the hardest part of development so far and I'm really grateful for the community's help and support.

-Yuji

Original post

30 Dec 2024Developer post

Dev Update FY2024 Q4

Hi everyone! It's the end of the quarter, so let's take a look at how development is coming along. The big news is the strategy layer playtest finally kicked off this month. I've been dying to get the iteration cycle going. As you guys know, I rely very heavily on the community t

Hi everyone! It's the end of the quarter, so let's take a look at how development is coming along.

The big news is the strategy layer playtest finally kicked off this month. I've been dying to get the iteration cycle going. As you guys know, I rely very heavily on the community to guide development. Your feedback is why the tactical layer has been a success. And that's why it's a big deal that the strategy layer playtest is finally underway.

As expected, the first few builds were very rough and the testers struggled a lot. However, their feedback was invaluable. Beyond just finding bugs and improving mechanics, they helped me understand and improve deeper structural problems with the game loop. Here's a summary of testing so far and the next steps.

The playtest included the opening months of the Labor campaign and 70% of the core systems: squad movement and zone-of-control, recruitment and unit management, base-building, labor management, supply chains and logistics, and research. It also introduced a few big things to the tactical layer.
On the whole, testers found the campaign to be buggy, sluggish and lacking direction. The strategy layer had too much "4X" resulting in long down-times between battles. However, most players agreed the systems promised depth and that the overall design was in-line with what they wanted from a strategy layer.
On the tactical front, the feedback was much more positive. Players enjoyed the new melee weapons. Friendly AI units were very popular. And the new morale and surrender mechanics mostly fit in with the existing combat systems.

Development and playtesting is continuing with a focus on

Tightening the core game loop and reducing down-time between battles. For example, capture ice mine -> extract water -> construct algae farm -> support larger population -> boost soldier recruitment. On paper, this sounds reasonable. But in the game, it all felt slow and bloated. So I'm cutting fat and connecting campaign progress more directly with battle results.
The strategy layer will always be a sandbox, but my initial designs offered players too little direction. So I'm trying to give the campaign more structure, especially how missions are generated. This includes a new mechanic that lets you send operatives on covert ops behind enemy lines to gather intel and discover missions.
Finish adding remaining systems, especially unit and equipment progression. The most critical missing element is the Gunsmith mechanic, which enables players to homebrew custom Redox guns and bring them into battle. This feature drives Labor's campaign progression, creating that "one-more-turn" loop as the worker rebellion grows stronger and stronger.

Anyway, this is probably TMI for most readers since the game is not even out yet. But I know some of you are following development very closely, so I thought a transparent view of the design process would be interesting.

Overall, my goal for Q1 is to continue testing the hell out of the strategy layer. Once things are feeling good, I will release a demo for the public to get a taste. And then it's just push push push toward the release.

HUGE THANKS to the Discord community for all their incredible feedback! The playtest is managed on Discord so if you are interested in playtesting and have the patience for bugs and jank you can sign-up for access there. I am opening up access slowly over-time with each new build.

Thanks for sticking with me this year! Wishing you happy and safe holidays.

-Yuji

Original post

25 Sep 2024Developer post

Dev Update FY2024 Q3

Hey everyone! It's been a few months since the last dev update. Like every good little capitalist 😇 I try to keep my stakeholders appraised every quarter. FY24 Q3 Executive Summary Continued intense work designing and implementing the strategy layer. GRRRR! Continued adding feat

Hey everyone! It's been a few months since the last dev update. Like every good little capitalist 😇 I try to keep my stakeholders appraised every quarter.

FY24 Q3 Executive Summary

Continued intense work designing and implementing the strategy layer. GRRRR!
Continued adding features to the tactical engine, including NPCs and larger maps.
Continued adding cross-layer mechanics, including POWs. Capturing enemies in battle and forcing them to work in labor camps is such a JOY!
Continued improving enemy tactical AI. They actually work as a team now. Be afraid.
This month finally began internal testing of combined strategy layer + tactical layer: the full loop!
On the marketing front, released a new trailer and posted new dev-logs (see below). And check out the new Steam capsule artwork prepared by my publisher Hooded Horse.

Near-Term Outlook

Closed playtesting will begin soonTM.
After playtest build is stable, I will release a permanent demo that includes the strategy layer.
Then it's just powering toward the finish line. GRRRRRR!

Lastly, the Tokyo Game Show begins tomorrow and kicks off the biggest week of gaming here in Japan. Given all the buzz around town, I feel compelled to share something special with you guys. So here's a first look at a new ground vehicle.

The Mars Rapid Response Vehicle (MRRV). This is the civilian variant.

The corporation first brought these over to Mars for work use. They're designed so laborers can quickly hop in and out in their suits -- no pressurization needed -- to race to an accident or an emergency. After the conflict broke out MRRVs were adapted for warfare. I will share the non-civilian variant and more details about vehicle mechanics in a future dev log. This game is focused on infantry combat, but vehicles will play a role.

Well, that's it. Thank you for your patience! It felt good to finally begin testing the entire loop. A lot of work is remaining, but with enough GRRRR we'll get there. See you next quarter. -Yuji

Recent marketing stuff:

PC Gaming Show Trailer (June 2024)
Dev Log #04: Grenades
Dev Log #05: Destruction
Dev Log #06: Shooting and Ballistics
Dev Log #07: World of Mars Tactics (coming soon!)

Disclosures: All forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause results to be materially different than expectations. I might not actually be a capitalist. Go Padres. You should watch For All Mankind. And listen to DJ Phil's new EP Boarding Pass. Check out this insane fanart by ZOHEI. Other company and product names may be trademarks of the respective organizations with which they are associated. Haha you read all the fine print, this game is definitely for you.

Original post

30 Aug 2024Developer post

Dev Log #06: Shooting and Ballistics

Hi everyone, this month let's take look at shooting and how chance-to-hit is calculated. A big part of the tactical sandbox I'm trying to build is letting you shoot physically persistent bullets anywhere you want. Not just at enemies or predetermined targets, but literally at any

Hi everyone, this month let's take look at shooting and how chance-to-hit is calculated.

A big part of the tactical sandbox I'm trying to build is letting you shoot physically persistent bullets anywhere you want. Not just at enemies or predetermined targets, but literally at any position on the battlefield.

Besides just being fun, this freedom makes shooting more interesting. It's no longer about just hitting a target. Things like fire superiority and suppression become just as important. For example, in this game there's no special "Suppression" action or ability. You just point and shoot, and bullets flying close to someone will apply suppression to them.

This enemy is hiding behind good cover, but you can shoot at the air above or next to them to apply suppression.

And with physical projectiles you have to be mindful of the background. If a bullet misses its target or a rocket veers off course, it will keep flying until it hits something. As the great Vincent Hanna (Al Pacino) said in the movie HEAT: "Get clean shots. Watch your background!"

The poor Martian civilian workers are always catching strays.

Chance-to-Hit

That said, this is still a turn-based strategy game. So chance-to-hit is calculated using dice. However, it's done in a way that reflects the physics of the tactical sandbox.

When aiming your gun, the game generates 100 trajectories from the barrel tip toward the target's center of mass, forming a cone. The diameter of the cone is based on various factors including the shooter's skill. So when the game shows you have a 49% chance-to-hit, that means 49 out of the 100 trajectories are intersecting the target's hitbox.

The cone as shown in debug mode. The idea is to combine dice with physics-based ballistics.

Next, when you pull the trigger, the game rolls a D100 die and picks one of the trajectories for the bullet to follow. For example, with a 49% shot, if you roll 49 or lower the game will choose a trajectory that hits the target, while rolling 50 or higher will result in a miss.

Finally, in the case of burst or auto-fire, for most guns the game also rolls "recoil dice" for every subsequent bullet in the shot. Each recoil die can produce a positive or negative value depending on the shooter's skill. This is added to the prior bullet's value and a trajectory is chosen based on the cumulative total. The idea is that the soldier is rolling dice to try and control the recoil.

The battle log shows the first 4 bullets missed, but the last 2 hit as the shooter fought the recoil to bring the spray back on target.

Realistic Weapons

What I love about this whole system (shoot anywhere + persistent bullets + dice + physics) is how guns naturally take on their real-life roles. For example, the LMG is excellent for suppression not because of some special flag or ability, but because of its high fire-rate and large magazine. And the system doesn't arbitrarily limit your tactical options. There's nothing stopping you from using other guns for suppression too -- it'll just take more shots to pin an enemy down.

Another example is the shotgun. It doesn't need recoil dice because it fires all bullets at once (buckshot). So each bullet rolls its own D100. This is a big deal because rolling many independent dice means statistically there's a higher chance that at least one bullet will hit. In other words, similar logic to real-life.

The shottie is great for taking down drones, which are small and hard to hit but take just one bullet to bring down.

Well that's it for this dev log. I look forward to your thoughts and questions in the comments!

Follow and Wishlist here for these dev logs to appear in your Steam News section (they do not appear on the store page). You can also follow me on Discord, Reddit, Twitter or Bluesky. Lastly, if you just want an email alert when I make a post on Steam you can sign up here. THANK YOU FOR YOU SUPPORT!!

-Yuji

Prior dev-logs:

Original post

12 Jul 2024Developer post

Dev Log #05: Destruction

Hi everyone, today's topic is destruction which is a big part of Mars Tactics. Almost everything on the battlefield is destructible, even the terrain itself. For example, if your troops are pushing into an area with no cover, they can throw a high-explosive charge to create a fox

Hi everyone, today's topic is destruction which is a big part of Mars Tactics.

Almost everything on the battlefield is destructible, even the terrain itself. For example, if your troops are pushing into an area with no cover, they can throw a high-explosive charge to create a foxhole to dive into.

Explosives are abundant on Mars as they are used extensively in mining operations.

And when defending an objective, your troops can create trenches to fortify their position. Of course, AI troops are aware of landscape changes and if given the chance will use your trench against you.

Rebel workers in a trench keeping watch for corporate forces. Big trenches like this are not trivial to make -- this one was created by a strafing airstrike run.

Use the Environment

Besides grenade and bombs, environmental objects can also trigger small and large explosions. The game will communicate which objects can explode, so keep that in mind when taking cover.

Chemical tanks can be damaged by direct fire or remote hacking. The blasts are powerful enough to leave craters.

For some special objects, explosions will rip them apart creating debris that can be used as cover. Falling debris may push units and even hurt them, although never fatally.

Construction crane blows up into smaller pieces, each of which become cover. Please note this feature is still in the experimental stage.

Permanent Damage

Destruction is permanent across the world. When you revisit battlefields, you will see familiar craters and trenches (although they will be eroded over time by sandstorms). Likewise, damaging buildings will reduce their productivity in the strategy layer, until repaired. Infrastructure is precious on Mars, so you should weight the cost/benefit of using destruction.

Preserving detailed destruction data across the whole world map creates gigantic save files. Optimizing this has been a very big challenge.

Not Minecraft

All of that said, I just want to be clear that explosions and destruction are not themselves the end goal of gameplay. They are just one aspect of infantry combat. To that end, you cannot dig tunnels or create caves. And destruction only goes a few layers deep (every map has an indestructible rock bed). And some objects and ground types cannot be destroyed.

Underground facilities like these are heavily fortified and cannot be destroyed. (On Mars everyone lives under the surface to escape radiation.)

So the goal is not to re-create Minecraft, as cool as that would be. The focus of Mars Tactics is firmly on turn-based infantry combat. But I hope destruction is a useful and fun part of the tactics sandbox that allows you to be creative.

Timelapse of a hilltop fortification slowly getting decimated.

Well, that's it for this time. Let me know your thoughts in the comments. This game takes place just 20 years from now during the very early stages of the corpo-colonization of Mars, so there's no terraforming or much human settlement. That means you should expect to fight through lots and lots of sand maps. But I hope the destruction system will help make each battle more memorable and fun.

Follow and Wishlist here for these dev logs to appear in your Steam News section (they do not appear on the store page). You can also follow me on Discord, Reddit, Twitter or Bluesky. Lastly, if you just want an email alert when I make a post on Steam you can sign up here. THANK YOU FOR YOU SUPPORT!!

-Yuji

Original post

09 Jun 2024Developer post

Dev Log #04: Grenades

Hi everyone, today's dev log is about grenades, which work quite differently in this game compared to others in the genre. Let's dive in so you're not surprised the first time you play. In many turn-based tactics games, grenades are a tool against randomness. If you miss your sho

Hi everyone, today's dev log is about grenades, which work quite differently in this game compared to others in the genre. Let's dive in so you're not surprised the first time you play.

In many turn-based tactics games, grenades are a tool against randomness. If you miss your shot, the trusty grenade can save you. But in Mars Tactics, grenades require more effort to use. In return, they provide you with more tactical options.

At the core of the design is a mechanic that makes units automatically scramble away when a grenade is thrown at them.

Targets run from a grenade.

But dodging an explosion is not a free move. It costs an action point. So one way to counter is to suppress your targets first, which reduces their AP.

Targets are suppressed first, then eliminated by a grenade.

Chucking a grenade can also force targets out of cover and into potential firing lanes.

Units take into account where a grenade is thrown from. This gives you some control over where they will run away to.

Keep in mind this mechanic applies equally to AI and player units. If a grenade is thrown at your units, they too will run away automatically. I understand you might be concerned because this takes control away from you. But I've spent a lot of time making sure units run away intelligently, taking into account the terrain layout, where a grenade is thrown from, where it lands and the position of enemies. And after a lot playtesting since last year, I think it’s working very well.

Plus, you’ll have other tools to defend against grenades, including special equipment and unit Traits. Here's an example of a soldier with a Trait that throws grenades back if the unit has enough AP.

Soldier with a special Trait throws a grenade back.

Lastly, I just want to remind you that despite your best efforts, your units will die. And that's expected. By design, death is a big part of this game. I want Mars to feel like a meat grinder, not a battle of superheroes. To that end, I'm balancing the game so that the loss of a single soldier will not derail your campaign.

Well, that’s it for this dev log. Look forward to your thoughts in the comments. There's actually a lot more to talk about grenades (different types, physics, throwing accuracy, etc), so I will probably write a part 2 later.

If you don't want to miss future dev logs (they do not appear on the store page), be sure to Follow (and Wishlist!) the game here and these dev logs will appear in your Steam News section. Or you can follow me on Discord, Twitter or Reddit where I always post a link to these. Lastly, you can subscribe to the newsletter if you want an email alert when I make a post.

-Yuji

PS: A very special thanks to DCello for sharing the idea for this mechanic.

Original post

Updates & announcements

The Good

The Bad

What's Next

Playtest Highlights

Crisis on Earth

Space Gold Rush

Edge Cases

The Great Pivot

Nothing to Lose

Mars First Labor Union

Lodestar Corp.

1. I'm sorry

2. Why delay?

3. What's next

Literal and Physical

Martian Statecraft

Non-Linear Research

Looking Ahead

Join the Mars Tactics Community

Gunsmith

Infiltration

World Map, Logistics, Research

Chance-to-Hit

Realistic Weapons

Use the Environment

Permanent Damage

Not Minecraft