Hello MekaRiders! After a very long time of not updating, due to me being severely impacted by Hurricane Ida and causing my power to go out for over 22 days I'm back! I'm still without internet and doing a lot of things with my phone's hotspot (such as this update), but won't be able to push updates until my service provider is able to restore internet services at my place! I'm also working on some new things (that is not MekaFighters) that I hope will be fun when I'm able to show them off; so stay tuned for that!
Let's go over some things. This update will consist of: Events, Skin Changes (and new types!), New Mekas, and New Gamemodes. Let's get started!
Events:
In my earlier plans (before Hurricane Ida introduced all these issues) I had wanted to plan a Halloween "event" where you could earn free skins by just playing the game, but if you didn't want to play you could simply just purchase them at a "Event Price" which would be hugely discounted. Sadly, this more than likely won't be able to happen this year for Halloween, but I would like to plan something for the approaching Holiday season with the same style: you can earn the event skins just by playing and not paying. But there will be non-holiday related events such as one I'm working on called Light vs. Dark: A darkness is consuming everything and everyone... MekaFighters and their MekaRiders are being consumed, can you banish the darkness away and free their shackled souls? This event would also bring in the first true skinline which is Light Vs. Dark and features Light Protectors against Darkness Servants!
Skins:
On the subject of skins, I'll be introducing something new in a new update when I push the next update: Skin Rarities. These rarities are in place to let you know the "quality" of the skin. The list goes as followed (please note, as of 10/04/2021 that 300 MekaTokens equal $1 USD):
- Common - 300 MekaTokens
- Uncommon - 600 MekaTokens
- Rare - 1200 MekaTokens
- Very Rare - 1500 MekaTokens
- Ultra Rare - 1800 MekaTokens
- ICONIC (Limited Edition, we'll get to these in a bit) - 2100 MekaTokens
- Event Skins - 1800 Tokens (with a discount while that event is ongoing!)
- LEGENDARY Skins (more on these later) - 2400 MekaTokens.
That is the current list we are going with, but please note this is all subject to change as I finalize everything in place.
ICONIC Skins:
These are skins which will be considered "limited edition" (it's in quotes for a reason) where you can buy these while they are available and they won't come back for a while! Think of it as a "Legacy" type of skin where they only show up once a year. These skins will only be available for a Meka after their release for a certain time and they disappear until the game's anniversary event comes up (unless that Meka and it's skin was released less than 5 months before the anniversary). This won't be introduced right now, but in a future update a new Meka will follow this system and any Mekas released before this was introduced will receive a the ICONIC Skin that is available year-round.
Legendary Skins:
These are skins which are either "crossovers" or have new animations, VFX, SFX, and more attached to them which means tons more work is being put into them than other skins. There are a couple of these in the works currently and hopefully you'll think they're cool!
As I've said time and time again please remember: All skins and characters are purchased with MekaTokens and you earn those just by playing the game, no need to purchase anything EVER.
New Way for Recolors to be made:
From Gerard and AM3 - The Widowmakers, I'll be changing the way I make recolors for the Mekas. Usually, I made a set color in Blender and then in-engine I would update and essentially just "overlay" the other colors ontop which made some weird things. The change here is that I'll be keeping the materials the color White in Blender and then in-engine just color them. This should allow me to make better Meka Base Colors and Recolors. As for new skins, they will be made ontop of the UVS of the Mekas and made like that and not with this new method.
Ongoing Meka Development:
There are some new Mekas in the works besides the ones listed on the roadmap, but no worries I'll be adding them slowly to it! Coming soon is a bombastic and daring bombardier that will come to steal the show, a robot merging itself with a Meka Unit to become the best Meka, and a demonic force making itself a Meka Unit after being devastated by one to take over the world. Besides these, there are even more and some really cool things are planned with them and I can't wait to show them!
New Gamemodes:
As with the "planned" events, the plans for introducing new gamemodes are being pushed back. For those who don't know: I was working on systems to support 3v3s and bring that to the game. 3v3s are where 6 total players in teams of threes face off against each other and a new team-oriented Meka was going to be introduced. Those are both being delayed but they'll still be coming! The other gamemodes that were planned, Capture and Protect, are also being delayed. Quick rundown on these - Capture: Capture various points located on the map and gain more points than the other team before time runs out. Protect: 6 Players gather in teams of threes where one side has to defend citizens from the attack and others have to try to defeat the defending Mekas and citizens to gain control. Those were planned to come after 3v3s, but will be delayed for some time.
Miscellaneous Changes:
Login Screen Changes: Previously, what used to just be a static level with the Mekas frozen in place will now change to randomly choose 2 Mekas to be displayed and the Camera will rotate over them slowly. The Mekas will still be frozen, but I want to make it more dynamic. In the future (and during events) I hope to have it even more animated to make it feel alive. I'll be making new systems and animations specifically for this to make it better.
Please note, there is no planned ETA for when I will be updating the game next as I need internet services before I'm able to that. Apologies for the delays!
Cheers,
Austin James