Hello Commanders! Tomorrow, May 16th, at 12:00 UTC, we'll release the 0.8.1 update, focusing on the new 4-Player Brawl game mode, but also introducing a number of balance changes and improvements. Let's dive into some details!
4-Player Brawl
4-Player Brawl offers a new way to play, that stands as a compliment to already established Mechabellum meta. The mode is a combination of a Free For All battle with PvE elements. You'll face off against three other players, while also contending with an NPC faction located in the middle of the map. The players' objective is to accumulate points for eliminating your opponents, while also destroying Supply Ships in the middle of the map to afford more units and upgrades in each round. The player that gets the specified amount of points first, wins the whole match.
But be careful! Being in the lead all the time isn't always beneficial. The neutral AI will pay extra attention to the best performing player each round and will set up its defenses specifically to counter their army.
The 4-Player Brawl isn't as hardcore or demanding on micromanagement as the 1v1 or 2v2 modes, and requires a different type of strategy than the usual Mechabellum match. Think in more macro terms, know when to give ground and surrender your lead, and set yourself up for the final victory!
A few words about ongoing performance improvements
The 4 Player Brawl is demanding on player hardware, due to a much larger number of units compared to classic game modes. Currently, the performance in this iteration of the mode isn't where we want it to be by the time of the full release. Players playing on high-end hardware should already have a satisfactory experience, but we want to be upfront here and it's likely that those of you playing on more mid- or low-range PCs will experience a varying degree of lag, especially in the later rounds of the 4 Player Brawl.
Improving the performance will be one of our priorities for the coming updates, so expect your performance and experience to only improve going forward. In the meantime, we want to thank you for your patience!
Balance Adjustments
Over the years of development we've had many questions regarding how we approach balancing units, production, and tech. From this update onward we'll try to address balance changes with additional notes on why a change was made in hopes to be more transparent with you all! Not every post or a hotfix we make might get that treatment, but we'll try to do this as frequently as our time allows.
Production Techs
Now all production Tech have a maximum production amount.
Note: In the past, production Techs were too powerful in 2v2. This change has almost no impact on 1v1 battles, but it may limit the role of production Tech in 2v2 and our new 4-Player Brawl.
Vulcan
Splash range increased from 12 meters to 15 meters.
Note: After the Vulcan's unlocking cost increased from 100 to 200, the Vulcan's overall winning rate has been significantly lower than other units. This change aims to further enhance Vulcan's effectiveness against small and medium-sized units.
Melting Point
[Energy Absobtion] price decreased from 300 to 250.
Mustang
The ATK reduction value of [High Explosive Ammo] has been decreased from 40% to 30%, and the price has been increased from 150 to 200.
Steel Ball
[Energy Absobtion] price decreased from 300 to 200.
Note: We hope that a cheaper [Energy Absorbtion] Tech can help Steel Ball fight against the buffed Vulcan.
Phoenix
[Quantum Reassembly] has been adjusted: the time required for reassemble is reduced from 20 seconds to 15 seconds, and the maximum number of reassemble is reduced from 2 to 1.
The reassembled Phoenix is calculated as a quarter of the original score at the end of the round.
Note: In the past, [Quantum Reassembly] was weak in 1v1 and strong in 2v2. This change aims to balance the strength of [Quantum Reassembly] between different modes.
Scorpion
ATK increased from 9661 to 10047 (4% increase).
Range decreased from 110 to 100.
[Siege Mode] has been adjusted: In siege mode, the attack interval of the Scorpion is increased by an additional 1.5 seconds, and the ATK reduction value of the Scorpion is decreased from 40% to 35%.
Note: Although the win rate of the Scorpion is not high, the relatively long range and high health of the Scorpion have made it difficult for many players to find a suitable counter. Therefore, we decided to shorten the range of the Scorpion. We hope that this change will give more units the opportunity to fight against Scorpions more effectively.
Fire Badger
HP increased from 5703 to 5931 (4% increase).
ATK increased from 26 to 27 (4% increase).
Movement speed increased from 9m/s to 10m/s.
Sabertooth
ATK increased from 5455 to 6000 (10% increase).
Movement speed increased from 7m/s to 8m/s.
Typhoon
HP decreased from 10785 to 10030 (7% decrease)
The base HP of [Protective Barrier] has been decreased from 11000 to 10000.
Bugfixes
Fixed many UI related issues.
Fixed some English translation issues.
Wrapping up
One last thing we want to mention here is that there are no new units added with this update. As you all probably noticed in our new keyart, new units are on the way, and we plan to add some still in our Early Access program, a little bit later!
As always, thank you for supporting Mechabellum and helping us along in our Early Access journey! We hope you'll like the new 4 Player Brawl mode and will share your feedback with us!