AIRMECH STRIKE UPDATE #262

The Gangster is now available! With wheels in stead of treads, this heavy truck chassis has a lot of mobility, decent armor, and a nasty gattling gun. Sounds pefectly OP--be aware it isn't cheap to build and requires level 6 to build, so don't think you'll be Fort rushing using these out of the gate. But once you can build them, they are quite a threat to infantry and AirMechs alike.

We have another new unit coming next week, however our primary focus is on bugfixes right now, next up being a deeper balance pass to prepare for finally hitting that "release" button and leaving Early Access! There are always a ton of things we want to do but the game is in a nice stable spot where it makes sense to leave Early Access.

A feature we have been working on but probably won't be finalized for leaving Early Access is our new automated Tournament system. Inspired by Bloodline Champions, we wanted to make it much easier to host weekly tournaments all around the world on a regular and automated schedule. More info on this soon, and we might be running some small and quick tournaments over the next week for testing. This is intended to replace the previous weekly leaderboard race for PvP rewards. It's also possible (but not yet confirmed) that players or Factions will be able to create tournaments specifying their own rules and prizes. We see a lot of really cool things that can come from this.

We love getting bug reports, balance feedback, and whatever is on your mind using the ingame reporting tool! While we can't reply to them, we do read them all and appreciate your feedback. Especially now as we are working down to our final short list of things to do before we fully launch AirMech Strike to the world!

NEW CONTENT

• Gangster - fast attack vehicle with a chaingun. Level 6 build requirement.
• Protectorate of Justice- pet designed by Liquidsnake3 (Shop variant, can be Gold plated)
• Wisdom Guardian- pet designed by Liquidsnake3 (special reserve)
• Disco Ball- pet designed by ProProProPro (Shop variant)

CHANGES

• Local Player fog now focuses on the watch player, not the local player.
• let allies, spectators and replays show cloaked units w/ a min clamp on the cloaking (0.75) as the local player sees themselves
• Updated FAQs
• increased Missile Silo Marker HP to prevent Striker Sword from destroying it without assistance 3500 > 4500
• add even lower quality 4 level, no shadows (Wreckz mode)
• reduce default quality for weaker GPUS to 3 and 4 respectively
• reword shadow sampling logic for all shaders and quality levels
• add gaussian blur passes and offset subpixel sampling in most shadow sampling
• update Disco Ball icon
• tournament UI work (in progress)
• setting up tournament join commands
• setting up brackets and qualifiers for tournament
• preliminary gamepad support for main menu (work is being done, still not useable)
• make invite list background size dynamic
• Hide chat during map preview mode
• Don't show map preview on tutorial map
• Disable tournament billboard in lobby
• Update Common Name for Gold VIP Cubes 
• Some more setup for faction boosts
• Update some mini inspect buttons
• on unit stealth, don't make completely invisible to spectators and replays
• Adding crate sequence back into strike and fixing up timing

BUGFIXES

• fix missing checkbox for central asia region
• don't refund ability point on extra guardian removal, since this system has long changed and it's a bug/exploit
• Fix overlapping "Leave the pit" button 
• Intro cameras adjusted / all rotation cams replaced
• Changed lighting effects to start after intro cams
• Some tweaks for for clearing the sample map fixed height when going into tryout/pit
• Some misc updates for Wastelands promo
• Some fixes for inviting players/adding bots while in "the pit"
• Setup "map preview" before pregame loadout choice
• put in extra check if spectator for bindings
• move around leaderboard menu
• Possible fix for loadouts getting copied and saved
• fix conflict of activeloadout name for ingame (possible Loadout duplication/swap fix?)
• more fixes for lobby slots with different game modes
• fixes to lobby slot order, invites, teamswapping
• Fix tooltip for sg member icons while in "the pit"
• Fix chat in lobby
• show ping info for Hong Kong server
• Fix assert when scrolling in inventory ui
• Disable late glow once crate opening sequence is done
• change where backend disconnect messages are logged
• change indexes of practice pilots to sync bot adding and training menu
• Updating text for SYS_IsOnline and SYS_IsOffline, and adding game tags 
• updates for traditional chinese language usage
• Updated "OpenCrate3D" so that it can be skipped and cleared correctly
• Tweeks to the rocketeer to help not get stuck in the air, away from the land.
• Some tweaks so that the ingame loadout stuff doesn't touch the "ActiveLoadout" symbol at all
• Some more cleanup for ingame loadout stuff
• some gnd/air SI force updates to reduce first time visual popping particularly when transforming down to ground mode for the first time
• more state initialization to try to address debris position popping
• Fix up overlapping text in quests ui
• Fix up market listings ui after getting inventory
• Some cleanup for mini inspect/unlock dialog
• Fix repeat build name label being the wrong unit 
• Fix gamepad ability ui not clearing correctly 
• Fix mini inspect info when inspecting something from mail ui
• Fix market ui after accepting the terms 
• Fix going into editor mode from pause menu 
• Fix "resume" button on pause menu 
• draw units in the stealth state so you can actually see them at clamped stealth amount for allies/spectators/etc this includes mines
• use a ModelMatPresent material on the assassin/InfantrySpy so you can actually see it on the fort/outpost present platform
• don't show HpWarnRing or HpCriticalRing when spectating, since these are LocalAM_ symbols which will be 0 index when spectating
• Clear some dialog menus when using item from mini inspect dialog 
• add non-stealthed versions of mine materials so they don't disappear on the unit present platform in forts and outposts

That's all for now. Over the next week we'll be making more annoucements about the exact end of the free Founder's badge window, the end of the Beta Bundle, and the date we will be leaving Early Access. Thanks to everyone who helped along the way, you will find lots of benefits for being counted among those who played the game before the full launch!