AirMech

We're introducing two new units:

**Bucko **is an "improved" version of Bucky, recently recovered from an abandoned research facility. Apparently Bucky was criticized for not being accurate enough with rockets. The fix of course would be to put guidance systems in, making them missiles. But these systems take up space, which means less room for explosives. The tradeoff perhaps was not worth it, as Bucky seemed to be the more popular one. But still, perhaps Bucko has a use case.

**Ronin **is another recent discovery found in the remains of Asia. It seems similar in construction to a Butcher, but with lighter armor and energy swords allowing it to move fast. The only comparable we see in the western armies is the Assassin, but Ronin has no cloak ability. Another interesting set of tradeoffs that need testing in combat!

Big balance changes for Angel. Lots of help from the community here on balance and testing. We slowed down the Sniper attack, but also made it more powerful. It roughly comes out to the same damage, but you get fewer shots. Light units in front of heavier ones? Should be more options to defend against an Angel attack. We didn't just nerf her though--we buffed and reworked the Pistols at the same time. They now fire faster, and do a ton more damage--but they were also give extreme damage falloff. So it's your choice--get close with pistols or stay far away and snipe. We'll continue to see how this goes and continue to make tweaks.

Features:

• New bindings for Next Loadout and Previous Loadout

• Ctrl + [Next Loadout key] acts like Previous Loadout

• mouse wheel zoom in and out (from Wastelands)

Bug fixes:

• possibly fixed the Unit/AirMech stat flicker issue

• fix a misspelling of "shield" in some Parts

• fix replays not saving (meaning Spectate would not populate old games)

Balance:

• **Angel **range restored to previous range (removed 8% penalty)

• **Angel **Sniper mode fire rate cut in half (and)

• **Angel **Sniper mode fire energy doubled (but...)

• **Angel **Sniper mode fire damage doubled (for real this time)

• **Angel **Pistol fire damage roughly doubled (but...)

• **Angel **Pistol range reduced by 25%

• **Angel **Pistol damage falloff starts immediately (so get close)

• **Angel **Hyper Rail Overkill damage now +33%, 66%, 100%, 133% (was +50%, 100%, 150%, 200%)

• **Bombs **build time now 3 seconds (was 4)

• **Bucky **armor back to 30 (was 25)

• **T45 **armor is now 50 (was 60)

• **T45 **piercing is now 50 (was 70)

AirMech Server Pet

Back in November we had extended downtime while we rebuilt the servers. To commemerate these dark times, we're releasing a special pet and making it free to claim for the rest of 2025. No catch, just one redeem per account. It's a sad little server that crashes down to the ground when in robot mode, and flies around after you when you're in air mode. All while sparking and smoking.

Just enter this code ingame. Not a Steam key! An ingame code, press Esc and you should see a place to enter it.

4YZN-KAAD-AAXA-AADF

Update #290 (87805) December 9th, 2025

Some balance changes incoming. While Angel is getting a bigger rework, for now we're making some small adjustments. But keep in mind the sniper mode is getting a full rework as we've never been really happy with it, and we want it to be done right now that we're focusing on SteamDeck/gamepad.

We recently reduced the Kudos unlock cost of all the base AirMechs. A minor problem has been observed where players might have a skin of an AirMech before they unlock the base AirMech. This was done just to be nice and not force you to unlock them, but what we didn't realize is that for the persistent AirMech levels (important for Part level requirements) it stores all that metadata on the base AirMech. So if you don't own it, you don't earn XP. Still thinking about how to better handle this--possibly we just give you the AirMechs the Pilots are using from the Bounty missions along with the Pilots, but that still means players have to know to do that. Something to be solved, but for now always encourage new players to unlock those base classes. They should be getting plenty of Kudos from the low level Quests like beating the Challenges and Bounty missions.

Bug fixes:

• FF2000 now works as intended (was doing no damage)

• game has focus on launch on SteamDeck (so pressing A works to continue)

• you will now spawn in town after doing the Miniboss or Nicholai missions

Balance:

• Tactical Neural Implant fire speed bonus now +3% (was 5%)

• Gorgon ingame level requirement now 7 (was 8)

• Pepper now does half damage vs Fortress

• Shooter range reduced by 10%

• Shooter shot damage now 90 (was 130)

• Bucky armor now 25 (was 30)

• Bucky gives 50% more XP on destruction

• Angel range reduced by 8%

• made AirMech persistent levels more linear (easier to level)

Merry Mechs-mas!

Holiday events are live including daily presents under the tree in Town and Nicholai's last stand--the special Survival map originally in Wastelands. Can you find it? You'll have to venture out into the wastelands outside of Town and find the giant candy cane entrance.

Seasonal cosmetics are available, and even the Daily rewards have been buffed for this holiday season.

Rolling together a collection of fixes and work in progress for a minor update.

Updates

• Added Player Maps, Campaign buttons to Play menu

• Fixes to Map Editor window, show authors and allow unpublishing

• Campaign button just a test for more Wastelands maps being ported over

Balance

• Pepper and Stinger armor type lowered from 70 to 60

• Morty move speed lowered from 5.0 to 3.0

• Striker Missile Burst now only adds missiles each level, does not increase damage per missile (nerf/bugfix)

• Bucky armor type lowered from 40 to 30

• Osprey HP increased from 1400 to 1600 (because James likes playing Osprey)

• Iron 1 now has stats copied from Samson (since he's not easy to get, and was OP)

• Vulcan armor type lowered from 30 to 20

Rolling out a build with various fixes and some in-progress improvements to the Units Loadouts management. The ultimate goal is to allow you to have more than 4 loadouts and be able to pick the ones you want at the start of a match. With Custom maps seeing more playtime, the last thing you want is to not have the right units for the map or gamemode you are about to play. This will also lead to being able to pick your AirMech during pregame (for the same reasons).

Changes:

• Loadouts can be renamed

• Loadouts can be dragged by the number to a different row

• Added X to easily remove heads/flair/pets

• Fixed AirMech select menu choices when you don't own all the AirMechs

• Fixed display of Units when using RB menu with gamepad

• changed gamepad B in RB menu to clear last unit in queue

• made gamepad X cycle units

• gamepad Y should not double-build units anymore

• fixes to ingame unit swapping

• custom maps no longer have level restrictions (accidental restriction)

UI updates! We've added (somewhat ugly) buttons to the screen when in Town to make it easy to access the various functions. But wait, doesn't this defeat the purpose of having a Town area to explore? In a way, yes, but since Town is not well explained or labeled, it's still quite a mess for anyone new to it, both veterans and new players. The goal is to make Town good of course, but this achieves a number of things: giving the veterans who just want a simple menu what they have been asking for, a collection of everything in one place for new players, and a rework of some menus to prepare for better gamepad support. The text will become nicer looking icons, and the order they appear will be tweaked for new players, plus options to hide/show things.

While not beautiful, it is intended to at least be functional, so we are looking for bug reports specific to anything bad happening with them. Please post them in the "bugs" forum area in Discord: [https://discord.gg/AirMech](AirMech Discord)

The AirMech Loadout menu has had significant changes to hopefully fix a number of bugs that were there, and sets things up to hopepfully allow AirMech selection during Pregame. The Units menu is in the middle of a rework. If you have 4 Loadouts or less then it looks fine...if you have 5 or more (veteran players only) then you will see the in-progress stuff. The intent is to make it easier to swap around rows of units, and when you start a match you will eventually be able to pick which 4 rows you want to use.

Custom Games and Maps! A small but potentially huge change is making it easier to access Custom Games, though the bot/player setup is still buggy. But Custom Maps have been enabled in Solo, Coop, and Custom games when you pick the map. Look for the new tile in the lower right of the Map select screen.

Balance:

• Striker GroundDPS changed from 245 to 250

• Striker AirDPS changed from 370 to 380

• Striker Carry Capacity changed to 2200 from 2300

• Neo Armor Type changed from 70 to 75

• Angel GroundDPS changed from 237 to 240

• Angel HP changed from 1500 to 1550

• Angel Carry Capacity changed from 2400 to 2300

• Uber build time increased to 2 minutes

• Uber build cost increased to 88,888 credits

• Missile Silo build cost increased from 8000 to 15000

Minor update to fix some matchmaking issues. One was where if you were invited and then joined the queue from the bottom menu, you didn't go in the general queue.

We also reworked some logic around changing modes and player sizes. Sometimes bad things might happen if players joined and left. We've put some more guardrails to prevent bad combinations and try to make better choices if someone drops while in queue.

Hopefully that settles down the main matchmaking queue bugs--we'll be focusing on making Custom Games more flexible, getting all the options working, and after some testing we'll put them front and center instead of hiding them in the corner.

Many thanks to all of the players who have been sharing information with us about situations where they have not been able to play due to latency (ping) estimations when they really should have pretty good internet. This only affects a subset of players, so there is a good chance this update is not relevant to you, but it might be. Out of these groups:

• Players who can use Matchmaking fine already

• Players who cannot use Matchmaking, but do have decent internet

• Players who cannot use Matchmaking, and don't have decent internet

This update is for the middle set. Definitely let us know if this helped you or not!

Fixes also went in for not selecting the correct mode/map when directly inviting someone to play with.

Minor bugfix and quality of life improvements patch. Something to watch out for is if you invite people into a group and then try to play games, you may not have common servers with them. This could lead to a black screen when loading which never clears, because both players can't get on the same server. Try to verify you have common servers if directly inviting people to play with. If you use Matchmaking, this shouldn't be an issue--defifnitely let us know if it happens when using the Matchmaking flow!

Changes:

• resume dropping crates besides Strike Crate

• rename Void Crate to** Void Plans Crate**

• start dropping Void Walker Crate again (very low chance)

• changes to language around Locked Diamonds to be "Bonus"

• hide Bonus Diamonds until level 8 and more than 800 saved

Fixes:

• fix friend invite on click not offering the accept option

• prevent mapmode from switching in custom games

• don't clear your state when AFK if doing solo stuff

• remove random Diamond sparkle shower pfx in middle of town

Continuing the work on making Custom Games easy to setup, easy to browse and join. Definitely still bugs we are working out, especially how to configure what bots go where and move people around between teams but already we see people eager to use it.

Look for the half buried structure in the lower right area of town for now. Once we get it working more reliably we'll move it front and center.

Semi-related is Custom Maps! Some players didn't even know you could make and upload custom maps. We want to make sure everyone can discover and play these now, which is why the Custom Games and browsing will be so important.

We have new queues for Matchmaking, both on the PvE side and PvP. While these should mostly work the same as they have in the past, a key difference is it is easier to change what your group wants to do. If you start by inviting a friend directly, or get matched with them, you can change your minds and play a different mode or game type.

That sounds minor, but the reason we did this is to lay the groundwork for Custom Games! Yes we are bringing back truly custom games and all the options from years ago. Yes, this also means the ability to browse Custom games, and play user made maps.

For what is new it depends if you have been keeping up with the Reboot or not. The goal of Reboot is to bring the best parts of AirMech Arena (the console version) and AirMech Wastelands (the paid game) into the F2P version of AirMech--known going forward as just AirMech. AirMech Strike was extremely PvP focused, so by dropping the second name we hope it is clear this is the one true AirMech going forward.

Patchnotes are posted ingame, and we'll try to also post them here but as minor updates.

It's a been a long time coming, but we are ready to more widely test the biggest update to AirMech in years. Consider this the "Director's Cut" of the game, taking our favorite things from AirMech Arena, combining that with parts of AirMech Wastelands, and just going back to simpler more fun gameplay.

Survival and Coop are back and front and center. We have the basics of a Town area to meet other players and even explore outside. Parts are back, and drop by chance from any enemies, not just at the end of games.

We'll talk more about this later giving a full rundown of what is in this new version and what is coming--if we survive 24 hours. We may revert back to the older Strike build if things don't go smoothly.

This is a PvP live-balance update aimed at addressing a few sore spots and shifting some units closer toward their intended roles. An additional live-balance update is expected to follow after some time for players to adjust. Join us on Discord to discuss the balance changes: https://discord.gg/AirMech

• **Bomber **guns piercing increased from 50 to 55
• **Bomber **melee damage increased from 161 to 166
• **Bomber **armor decreased from 80 to 75
• **Angel **armor piercing increased from 50 to 55
• **Striker **carry capacity decreased from 2300 to 2100
• **Warthog **HP decreased from 1900 to 1800
• **Warthog **air DPS decreased from 460 to 440
• **Warthog **ground DPS increased from 230 to 240
• **Neo **armor decreased from 75 to 70
• **Morty **armor piercing increased from 40 to 50
• **Morty **death blast minimum range increased from 1.8 to 2.5
• **Flamer **armor piercing increased from 15 to 20
• **Assassin **move speed increased from 5 to 6
• **Sergeant **move speed decreased from 3.5 to 3.0
• **Sergeant **armor decreased from 40 to 30
• **Butcher **carry weight increased from 550 to 700
• **Necro **build time increased from 3.5 to 6.0
• **Arty **full-blast damage range increased from 1.5 to 2.5
• **Arty **blast damage increased from 100 to 120
• **Arty **armor decreased from 70 to 45
• **Arty **build cost increased from 4400 to 5400
• **Archy **full-blast damage range increased from 2.0 to 2.5
• **Archy **min-blast damage range decreased from 6.0 to 4.0
• **Archy **blast damage decreased from 80 to 70
• **Archy **direct damage increased from 130 to 150
• **Archy **armor decreased from 70 to 45
• **Archy **build cost increased from 4400 to 5400
• **Joker **HP increased from 600 to 700
• **Joker **armor decreased from 30 to 25
• **Rebel **armor decreased from 65 to 55
• **Jackal **armor decreased from 50 to 45
• **Armadillo **armor piercing decreased from 60 to 50
• **Gemini **aim rotation speed increased from 105 to 115
• **Grinder **HP decreased from 2750 to 2500
• **Grinder **armor decreased from 90 to 70
• **Grinder **build cost decreased from 13500 to 10500
• **Hero **build cost decreased from 4500 to 3500
• **Hero **HP increased from 1100 to 1250
• **T99 **build time decreased from 11.0 to 10.0
• **T99 **upkeep decreased from 3 to 2
• **T45 **shot damage decreased from 50 to 40
• **T45 **fire delay decreased from 0.25 to 0.2
• **T45 **sustained fire time increased from 1.0 to 1.2
• **Gatty **damage reduction vs outposts increased from 25% to 55%
• **HAAT **build cost decreased from 7300 to 6500
• **Gorgon **HP decreased from 3500 to 3200
• **Gorgon **armor piercing increased from 35 to 60
• **Gorgon **shot damage decreased from 35 to 25
• Stasis Mine build cost decreased from 1200 to 1000
• Heavy Mine carry weight increased from 750 to 1200
• Heave Mine build cost increased from 500 to 1000
• Heavy Mine shot damage increased from 1050 to 1300
• Generator build cost increased from 2800 to 3000
• **Generator **build time increased from 8.0 to 9.5

Balance, bugfixes and a few new skulls. There are some larger Strike features in development, including a rework to the team queuing systems and being in game together while looking for a group. Some of those changes were available for preview in the last few Canary builds, but need significantly more work, so for this update they are disabled while we work out the bugs.

Changes:

• Make faction discord links clickable

• Adding Void Skull

• Adding Prismatic Skull

• Adding Black Diamond Skull

• Adding Black Diamond Dice Pet

• Adding Book Recipe Icon

• Adding Helmet Recipe Icon

• Update surrender timer clock: 20s -> 10s

• Add new VIP Shop Ticket icon

• Add support for fuel consumption on usage of Helix grenades ability and guided airmode missiles

• Add support for energy use on Blade Guardian hits

• Add info tab log on crate open events

• Add hp and energy drain back to Osprey on it's drain beam ability usage

• Add counts to market items, automatic listing for things with multiples

Balance:

• Don't issue blade guardian damage if AirMech doesn't have enough energy for the hit

• Don't allow Angel's sniper stasis ability to charge up more than 1 shot

• Jumper HP decreased from 300 to 225

• Jumper armor decreased from 35 to 25

• Gorgon attack range decreased from 22 to 17

• Bomber melee armor piercing increased from 30 to 50

• AirMech Boost energy use increased from 1.0 to 2.5

• AirMech Boost cooldown increased from 0.21 to 0.42

Bugfixes:

• Update "LobbyTransformPanel" position if in a 3v3 custom lobby

• Fix version number size when language set to Chinese

• Fix rarity color for mini inspect dialog

• Fix player status bars not showing up in game

• Fix name when inspecting a bundle item

• Fix custom game ready/start

• Fix "LobbyTransformPanel" RTT in practice lobby mode

• Clear "try on" head when changing team colors

• Some layout fixes for faction chat ui

• Potential fix for stuck unit recycling state

• Fix material for "Beta Bomber"

• Fix display on minimap of neutral outposts to be grey

• Fix discord link display in faction ui

• Fix collision on some mountain tiles

• Add Fall Crate to Crates Inventory Set

We're rolling out some matching and ranking changes which go along with the new Season which just ended, this was part of some changes and improvements we are making to matchmaking and we wanted to have a clean break. We're currently debating doing 2 or 3 months for Seasons, and I'm personally leaning toward 3 so it can match the "seasons".

We wanted to intoduce a new lower priced way for new players to get VIP status, as the previous Starter Pack has a lot of currency in it but almost has too much if you are not sure what you need. Combined with the many requests to have another way to get the Nexus Warthog , and the Warthog being a new player favorite, this seemed like a great pacakge. So for $5 (USD, local currency may change) you get the Nexus Warthog (which means you can use Warthog), 1000 Diamonds, lifetime Silver VIP, and Boosts. Plus it doesn't overlap with the old Starter Pack, so anyone can pick it up and it's still a great piece of kit.

Lots of bug fixes and getting things in place for our new Tournament system, Diamond Roll improvements, etc. Read all about it below!

Changes:

• Renaming "Void Crate" to "Void Plans Crate"

• Jammer move speed increased from 3 to 6

• New ** Starter Pack** with ** Nexus Warthog** and 1000 Diamonds

• Rename old Starter Pack to ** Strike Pack** , nothing else changed

• Adding Black Diamond Roll effects

• Show total units next to upkeep on spectator hud

• Show player credits on spectator hud instead of ping

• make minimized chat window take the same number of characters as the big one, should always be the same

• let everyone autoroll in diamond raffles if they are in game and not AFK

• don't allow q-heal/repair to start while the AirMech is transforming

• Added Void Shot Tracers to Void Collection Set

• Updates/bugfixes to Touranment system

• Show player status bars while in the Pit

• Temporarily remove player count, as it was wrong (didn't refresh right, didn't show players per game type)

Bugfixes:

• Fixing transition from black -> normal rolls for materials and diamond lobby panel

• Fixing overlap on locked cosmetic hover for new craftable icon AM-10934

• Fixed a spot where units could be dropped in the trees on Duel

• Fixed a spot where infantry could be dropped in the rocks on Storm

• Fix right clicking on the bracket button to load the tournament editor (AM-10822)

• Fix ready button for unfair teams in lobby (AM-10828)

• Fix positioning for "InLobbyMenuPowerButton" (AM-10916)

• Fix overlapping text in tournament brackets ui (AM-10783)

• Fix Honor tooltip display (AM-10924)

• Fix Honor badge messages not displaying when clicking on them in Chat

• Fix "TournamentMasterRefresh" symbol not getting set when viewing the tournament list

• Fix "no show" red bar for winners in tournament brackets ui

• Don't show tournament "Go" button if not active

• Don't allow you to spectate a no-show match and update tooltip to match

• Don't allow players to change loadouts while playing a challenge map (AM-10921)

• Blocked units from being dropped on cliff edges behind the fortress on Twin Peaks

• potential bug fix for Neo EMP triggering cooldown but not EMP attack/effect on triggering close to transform transition

• Fix honor badge trailing space (AM-10917)

• fix angel sniper stasis shot ability not triggering correctly on F3/keyboard activation

• Don't toggle chat box if pressing enter while writing a mail message (AM-10835)

• Clear mini inspect dialog when you try to market list something (AM-10827)

• another potential fix for fog display issue when using spectator freecamera

• add terrain height tracking on Bomber Mantis strike projectile to improve it's usability on sloped terrain

• hide XP tip on player card

Big balance and bugfix patch! Along with the ongoing improvements below, initial features are in place for running our automated tournaments, and testing will begin this week. In fact, we have already run a few small tests, logged bugs, and will be making smaller incremental patches that focus on getting this brand new system working well.

CHANGES

• remove blast damage from Helix Rockets in Strike

• adding welcome panel back to lobby

• Adding red void tracer effects

• adding Void Eagle nanoforge formula

• Improved Chinese localizations

• fix some cases where part gambling might not return an item

• reworking Helix homing missile fire in air (was stacking too many missiles)

• hide seller name in player market items unless focused

• Updating DeepSea Osprey description text

• update helix rocket blast damages

• don't draw fortress line state (area restriction) when in free camera mode

• Display sg banned message if you're in a group and get banned (AM-10576)

• Color tweaks to VoidTracers and adding gameTime to stop anims in pause

• adding RocketsLifespan setting for helix

• Adding purple, green and blue versions of void tracers

• adding airmech dmg -> airmech ground/air mult dps scalars

• Adding "noScrap" flag to PetTawnyEagle and VoidEagle, as part of changes for AM-10581

• Added dialog box message for when you're sg banned and try to create/join a group (AM-10577)

• Add promos for void tracers

• Add permanent sg ban message (AM-10577)

• Add option to disable mention sound (AM-10617)

• Add right click on market item to list all of that type

• Add a list on the side of sell UI that shows current prices of item on market (AM-10573)

• Moved rank/season numbers into actual leaderboards ui

• Hide rank info when in "Faction Rank Wins"

• Tweak "Faction Rank Wins" tab width in rankings menu

• Remove "Hammer Throw Enabled" text from ABHammerThrow ability tool tip (AM-10318)

• Additional cleanup of Ability tool tip text (Google translate non-sense)

• reenable game balance sheet parsing in AMS

BALANCE

• Gangster HP decreased from 1600 to 1375

• Gangster upkeep increased from 1 to 2

• clean warthogs' dmg increase at range ranges, since they will cause extra work for no effect now

• set AirMechGndMultDPS to 1.15 for all mechs except for warthog, which is still just 1.0

• buffer paladin hammer base damage 60->80 to compensate for fixing MultDPS application

• buff missile homing damage (50->100) to make up for fire count change (max charge of 1 projectile)

• adjust base helix fire rate periods for missiles

• 1 -> 1.2 s for grenades, 0.666 -> 0.75s for rockets

• council balance update of: RocketsDamage = 142.5, 71.25, 47.5, 35.625, 28.5

• reworking Helix ground rockets damage formula to be more consistent with damage output prior to autofire changes

• reduce helix ground rockets range

• equal to Bomber Mantis strike now

• helix guided missile buf

• +25% base damage, +18% missile speed, with the same range

• make warthog and neo melee attack damage subject to target MultDPS modifiers

• buff warthog and neo melee to compensate for MultDPS against units (so the effective damage should be the same)

• buff striker and bomber melee to compensate for MultDPS against units (so the effective damage should be the same as it was before)

• give warthog it's own melee projectile type to differentiate from a2g for stats and target calculation checks

BUGFIXES

• Set "TournamentMasterRefresh" symbol when tournament list is shown (AM-10596)

• Hide "BracketsButton" when the daily rewards menu is loaded

• Fix wrong map being selected if you lose/quit out of a practice map

• Fix up display of qualifying/round start and end times in tournament list ui

• Fix spectator tournament title/subtitle getting cut off (AM-10583)

• Fix up display of countdown timer in spectator lobby (AM-10583)

• Fix right click on shop items (AM-10645)

• Fix overlapping mode labels in lobby (AM-10641)

• Fix mode when changing custom room from 1v1/3v3 to 2v2(AM-10643)

• Fix "LobbyMenuReady" menu position for spectator lobby (AM-10584)

• Fix reclaimable body destruction piece for Gangster/Jackal (AM-10595)

• Fix horns on Blue Skull pet (AM-10619)

• Fix crash when deploying a unit without a fort/outpost (AM-10193)

• Update display of rank to show 1v1/2v2 based on what rankings tab you're in

• Fixup naming of Bomber Variants set

• fix target damage scaling for Airmech ability damage output (Mantis Strike, Bombs, Power Sword, Bomber Melee)

• fix so 'show tooltips in game' option won't also turn off tooltips in the menus

• fix damage scaling to target for Paladin Hammer

• fix damage scaling against units for Saucer Deathray

• fix damage scaling against units/forts/outposts for Helix missiles and rockets

• Open the simple group if you kick a player while in a ranked 2v2 lobby (AM-10625)

• Quit out of a simple group if you kick a player or an invite is declined while in the limbo state

• Fix "BikeSideCar" tire z-spin (AM-10547)

AirMech Strike Update 268.5, Build 73323

Mostly incremental balance and bugfixes involved in the overhaul of how Helix uses Rockets. What seemed like a simple change on the surface snowballed into a lot of unintended stacking of damage and projectiles. Along with some other balance tweaks this should be a most welcome hotfix. :)

BALANCE

• reworking Helix ground rockets damage formula to be more consistent with damage output prior to autofire changes

• rework Helix Missile Launch ability to auto fire on chargeup. Consistent fire rate

• buff to higher level Missile Launcher ability

• Paladin hammer damage 45 -> 60

• Paladin hammer armor piercing 50 -> 70

• fix target damage scaling for Airmech ability damage output (Mantis Strike, Bombs, Power Sword, Bomber Melee)

• fix damage scaling to target for Paladin Hammer

• fix damage scaling against units for Saucer Deathray

• fix damage scaling against units/forts/outposts for Helix missiles and rockets

• Paladin Hammer stasis is now level based. 2s -> 2s, 2.5s, 3s, 4s at Hammer ability level 1->4

• reworking Helix homing missile fire in air (was stacking too many missiles)

• adjust base helix fire rate periods for missiles

• 1 -> 1.2 s for grenades, 0.666 -> 0.75s for rockets

• adding RocketsLifespan setting for helix

BUGFIXES

• Fix crash when deploying a unit without a fort/outpost (AM-10193)

• some of the Helix balance changes could be considered bugs, but are listed in the other section

AirMech Strike Update 268.5, Build 73323

Officially we'll call this a half-patch since it's focused on bugs, balance, and general quality of life improvements. Work on the Tournament system continues with it intending to be the main feature of the upcoming patch. We will be publicly testing that with trial Tournaments, so if you see one pop up you are welcome to enter it but expect there could be some bugs while we finish things up.

Note that you will need to have played several Ranked 1v1 games to even join the queue to try and play a Tournament! The first test will be 1v1 Tournaments with 2v2 coming a bit later. Most of the initial testing will be in 1v1 since 90% of the systems are needed for that and we can just focus on team tournaments as phase two.

Note that the changes to Helix had a ripple effect that make it hard to keep it the same for total DPS and it probably feels a bit high right now. Expect that to be toned down shortly pending feedback from the Council.

CHANGES

• Allow players to opt-out of new player flow early if they are ready (set once per game launch)

• More updates to Power Shield ability text

• rework Helix Missile Launch ability to auto fire on chargeup. Consistent fire rate buff to higher level Missile Launcher ability

• Change how collision works for Helix missiles (half change, half bug fix)

• Updating tooltip for Hammer Throw to include new stasis property

• Hide "power button" when not in fullscreen (Esc key for ingame menu)

• Updating Power Shield tool tip to use Damage Elimination text and replacements

• Update text for "Dialog Message Nanoforge Not Owned"

• Text updates for Power Shield ability text

• Setup new AirMech class variant sets

• Add AirMech Head Collection Sets

• add 'Hammer Stasis Time Bonus' property

• add 'EMP Stasis Time Bonus' setting for Neo EMP/stasis blast to boost effect duration

• continue Tournament work (not player facing yet)

BALANCE

• update power shield ability (Warthog & Paladin) to be straight damage elimiation: 50%, 60%, 70%, 80%

• Paladin hammer damage 45 > 60

• Paladin hammer armor piercing 50 > 70

• Paladin Hammer stasis is now level based. 2s > 2s, 2.5s, 3s, 4s at Hammer ability level 1>4

• Helix changes above could affect balance (though were not done for balance reasons)

BUGFIXED

• Fix Kudos gear being hidden from Shop sometimes (after using filters on the Market)

• Some checks before showing head icons for purchasing on endgame screen

• Fix overlapping "Get More Diamonds" button

• Fix market items showing up in the shop

• Fix "invite bot" option showing up in 2v2 when switching from 1v1

• Cleanup some faction symbols when doing a logout

AirMech Strike Build 73231

Launching out of Early Access has been amazing so far. We've spent less time with servers on fire than we expected after the initial weekend, and were very happy to be able to focus on more minor bug fixes and balance issues. We'd like to celebrate this by doing one of the most popular types of bundles from the past--a "Name Your Price" Bundle just for launch! Click the banner, pick a price (the minimum price varies according to payment options on platform/country) and pay what you want for 2000 Diamonds. Only have a dollar in your Steam wallet? No problem! No strings attached, this is a great way to get a few extra Diamonds to do whatever you want with.

Did I mention the Nexus Warthog yet? Well now I did, and this is a skin I've wanted to add for a long time. Something about mechs in white looks great to me, and there's nothing in the Warthog wardrobe that looks anything like this. We're not selling this one for Diamonds. It is the "Beat the Average" reward for this Name Your Price bundle. When you are picking your price, pay special attention to the current average. All you have to do is beat that average price by a penny and you'll get the Nexus Warthog. Don't have a Warthog yet? Owning any skin grants you instant access to the class. Since the Warthog is a great mech for starting out (even with the minor balance pass you'll see below) it felt like the perfect match for this event.

Please note! You can only buy this bundle ONCE, since obviously the fact you can set any price would make it very farmable. So first consider if you want the Nexus Warthog or not, because if you pay under the average price, there is no option to then add it. We have no plans to sell this unique skin for Diamonds in the future, so this is the best way to add it to your collection.

Changes:

• NEW Nexus Warthog as reward for beating the average in NYP Launch Bundle

• don't show 'bad ping' indicator in games using the fallbehind networking model

• make the 'falling behind' tip take priority over the 'bad ping' tip, rather than the other way around

• only show 'badping' state if the simple group is configured as a LockStep game (which is NOT the default anymore)

• bug fix for Angel triggering loop cooldown state without loop actually happening when done during transformation to air mode

• lower requirement to get out of new player flow

Balance:

• update Warthog gunstrage damage bonus per council feedback: 15%, 30%, 45%, 60% (from 25%, 50%, 75%, 100%)

• Rocketeer move speed increased from 3.5 to 5.0

• Rocketeer HP decreased from 500 to 350

• Gangster carry weight increased from 710 to 1100

• Moneymaker build time decreased from 8.0 to 5.5 (Council request)

Bugfixes:

• Fix for being put on opposite teams with your friend in unranked games

• Fallback method for pinging servers to fix "no ping data" cases

• Make Ultimate Moneymaker match base unit build speed

Below is a catchup of the recent patches from the last couple weeks. We always post patchnotes ingame, but as we have been super busy preparing to leave Early Access we have let posting here lag a bit behind. Post-Early Access, updates will always be posted here along with ingame.

As we move into the home stretch toward leaving Early Access, we wanted to give the Player Market one more chance of being opened up. The game has changed a lot in what items are desireable and what affects gameplay, so our concerns about keeping the Player Market restricted to VIPs may no longer be needed. We will definitely be keeping an eye on all things related to the Player Market since we would love to have it open to everyone again if we can avoid the headaches that came along with it.

Please be aware that for convenience we allow items that are intended for AirMech Wastelands to be shown in AirMech Strike. As the new Player Market was originally supposed to be exclusively for Wastelands players, this was fine, but it does have the potential to cause confusion. If new players are confused a bit about things which have the Wastelands icon, try to help explain how it works and be patient as we give this a shot.

Changes

• update saucer deathray AOE damage to council numbers (25%, 2->4 range)

• allow saucer deathray to target airmode airmechs and air units

• adding pulsed AOE damage to Saucer Deathray ability

• prepare market for non-VIP use

• add market chat tab

• add Rumble 3 promo banner and billboard

• merge selling dialog into main market window

• add more use tips for how to sell on market window

• make mail close buttons like others in the UI

• add dedicated Market chat channel

• add icon shortcuts for inventory/market/friends to info tab

• Enable PiDay items on Strike/Wastelands

• don't mark books as wastelands content, since they aren't anymore

• Added sfx for when unit configuration ui slides open

• Added sfx when market ui open/closes

• add 'Collection' and 'Market' ui nav links

• Updated AirMech class buttons in customization ui

• Make it rain Diamonds during a Diamond Roll

• make chat window not dragable

• improve spectate hud layout

• fix display of recalibrated airmech parts in strike

• animate lobby tree

• add proper art for Rumble 3

• testing game event cards

• reduce keypress influence to switch from gamepad back to mouse keyboard input. So you can more easily play with gamepad, and use the keyboard for some commands

• Added springtime lobby tree

• More sound effects hookups for ui

• FollowMech: Tighten up the moving target, increase the range where it will settle for when stopped.

• FollowMech: units more likely to stay put once they get into position.

• Add Wind sfx to Training level, to break up some of the quiet spots when no action takes place

• Add additional Sets for missing holidays

• Add additional themed content sets

• Move holiday Sets and put them in calendar order

• Add missing and new items to existing Sets

• Remove pre-placed stasis mines on lower pathway of Storm, council request

• reduce helix missiles activated buff to 2x charge speed (down from 3x)

• move color chooser above units in lobby

• Fixed crash bug in the editor related to dragging a tile quickly.

• Updated Saucer Abduct tool-tip with activated ability information

• update saucer abduct activated ability per council input +100% rate (base and percent) for 5s on 45s cooldown

• TankFlak/Gorgon hp 5000->3500 per council decision

• remove activated spinup ability (resets cooldowns) per council discussion

• Remove Activated Ability text for Warthog Spin Up ability

• make 'spectator' UI time controls work in replays

• fix uplink quest promo display

• attach email quest used a promo which was in the promos file with stopparse at the top, started a new Common.txt

• add activated state for saucer's abductability per Council discussion. 30 second cooldown +1000% base HP rate for 1 second

• call 'gfx refreshMinimap' from 'onRenderChangeViewport' script

• white minimap state should be fixed after window resize operations

• new lobby promo for Pepper (rocket turret)

• Add JungleRain sfx

• Allow you to unlock colors from color chooser ui

• update the generation of the excluded servers list

• update gun activated ability buf to 25% damage (from 50%) normalize all cooldowns to 45 seconds and increase duration from 5 seconds at all levels to 8,10,12,14

• Display units stats when hovering over the icon in the mini inspect/unlock dialog

• Adding AES Icon for Saucer

• Added activated state reveal for saucer abduct ability

Bugfixes

• clear bishop menu on match loading screen, which is only an issue because of promote to top stuff, meaning for almost a year we haven't been clearing it properly...might be unintended consequences from this "fix" so watch out

• remove tax book popup from clicking on tax rate (causes problems)

• fixes to various windows focus/close states

• fix not being able to create market listing

• Updated "turret drop" in Strike tutorial so that it works better (can be dropped on any socket now to continue)

• Fix transition when exiting out of a match

• small fixes to shop background

• fix some ability trigger input not respecting cooldown buffs

• Saucer teleport

• Added different diamond roll effects based on graphics quality

• Added video option to disable diamond roll effects

• Added a button to clear the diamond roll effects early

• Comment out UseScript for GVIPCube7 and GVIPCube30, since these are no longer consumable items

• Make "tab" button only cycle loadouts when ui open

• Make "tab" cycle chat tabs if loadouts ui is not open

• Fix team slot when in custom room and switching to a 1v1

• Mark TruckRatters as noTrade to be consistent with other units

• Hide more chat ui elements when using a gamepad

• potential bugfix for Angel being locked out of sniper rifle after in air ability activation of loop

• fix jerky camera transitions when watching different players as a spectator

• update spectators to be able to see player cards w/ carried units all the time

• fix unit pickup/drop scripts to correctly update carry unit UI tab states for update of spectator seeing them all

• bug fix for collection sets stat display/counts

• comment out Gorgon's "MeleeDPS" so it doesn't show DPS vs Ground on the stat card

• Stubbed in faction kudos/xp boost indicators in the lobby ui

• Hide 'EventDoubleTitleXP' and 'EventDoubleTitleK' if unit customization ui is open

• Fix unlock dialog not displaying the right icon on the endgame screen

• Fix unlock dialog and menu3d overlapping on the endgame screen

• Fix 'TryOutQuit' button placement

• Fix assert when unlocking heads on endgame screen

• update attempt for player status cards for everyone when spectating

• WIP

• this is much more work than originally thought

• Some cleanup for settings/pause menu

• Small tweak for showing stats in mini inspect ui

• Remove local build speed display in spectate ui

• quick and dirty potential 'fix' for stuck special stance state req

• on market filter change, reset the page count to 1 so you see the top of the list

• increase get market data defer delay from 0.7 seconds to 2.5 seconds so you are less likely to see the game system notify full screen popup when re-requesting market data, and the backend has to regenerate the universe

• if there are team 1 bots, do 2P pvp style listing in watch tab rather than '1v1 pvp'

• remove some old icons from AMS game watch listings (infinite no overtime symbol and ultimates allowed symbol)

• Hook up 'Market' chat link

• Fixup some naming inconsistencies with Player 0-6 in the Editor

• Fix tryout/try me button hidden state not getting set correctly

• Fix for unit stats not showing up when hovering over icon in mini inspect/unlock dialog

• fix decoupling of rendering state for helix grenades targeting. Add display position slewing. Moved from SimTickPlayer to VisTickPlayers

• probably some other rendering in there that should come out..

• Updating LobbyEventSpring

• Update text for "Communication Uplink" Quest, now that reward is back to Diamonds

• Sword and Snake pets link in chat

• Some minor fixes for when going in/out of "the pit"

• Some timing tweaks for map preview ui

• Pull IntroCam2 on Thar down slightly, so it doesn't display the north-eastern map edges during pans

• Move starting cameras in a bit on Twin Peaks, to fix seeing level bounds

• Move starting cameras in a bit on Crater, to fix seeing level bounds

• Move northern starting camera on Vale in, to fix seeing level bounds

• Move northern starting camera on Sandrim down slightly, to fix seeing level bounds

• Hide 'PromoLobby' if in lobby menus

• Hide 'DailyRewardMaster' if in a simple group

• Hide "LobbyIconSimpleGroupMembers" if AirMech customization ui is open

• Fixed going into "the pit" from ranked 1v1 using play sub button

• Fix spamming of going in/out of "the pit"

• Fix 'LobbyMenuStatus' overlapping AirMech customization ui

• Fix gamepad focus for map preview/pregame loadout selection

• Fix gamepad command press after clearing pregame loadout selection ui

• Fix editor issue with pets flickering across the map.

• Fix challenge continue button bringing up the pause menu

• Fix being able to see level bounds on both side of Nesthorn during intro camera pans

• Fix AirMech selection not saving when swapping class/skins

• Don't swap loadouts when holding down right shoulder to bring up the ability upgrade ui

• Another fix for going into "the pit" when in a 1v1 ranked lobby

• use emission start offset on guardians spawn to fix stretched initial spawn (was noticable on the blade guardian)

• update autoexecsrv for 72028 (desync testing patch)

• Some tweaks for gamepad build menu

• Some more tweaks for ability upgrade ui for gamepad

• Some cleanup for 'SwitchToPad' scripts

• show/hide correct server locations

• Possible fix for missing unit name in mini inspect/unlock dialog

• Fix selection outline in loadout customization ui

• only transport the low byte of iparam on PadStartGlide input action

• move t99 missile fire smoke puff up a bit

• use M_HashStringCased instead of 'HeatHash::StringCaseSensitive' on literal strings to hash them at compile time instead of run time

• pfx system clamp 'maxparticles' to 'stopafterparticle' count if it's <

• More cleanup of description text for Units (AM-9345)

• misc nonsense looking at saucer abduction stuff

• Make left shoulder always bring up the build menu on gamepad

• Make gamepad build menu show up after a delay

• Don't swap loadout if gamepad build menu comes up

• local action state blocking ofr Pad Start/Stop SelfDestruct input actions

• If brining up the build menu with left shoulder on gamepad, don't do a loadout swap

• Fixed clipping geo on green sea bomber

• Fix 'MinimapViewboxSm' size for spectators

• Fix gamepad ability upgrade ui not clearing when swap loadouts is mapped to right shoulder

• fix for unit shot leading against other units

• fix 'DetailQuality' to account for the last quality level now being '4' rather than '3'

• Fix '_OrderMode' not getting reset when using gamepad to swap loadouts

• Don't show "GamepadHintDpadIconUpgrade" if not using gamepad

• add action request blocking state for recycling units m_isRecyclingUnitReq so we don't spam start/stop input actions while we are waiting for a delta action to occur. Might clean up some issues that occur w/ net game action rescheduling

The Gangster makes short work of lighter units.

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!

Big things to note are the new abilities for Neo and Osprey. Neo now can do a powerful backstab attack while cloaked, and also has a super-stealth activated mode. Osprey has turned to the dark side and has tuned his nano tool to disassemble enemy units as a weapon! Both are experimental and will get ongoing improvements, fixes, and balanced. Feedback is most welcome.

This patch (and the pre-patch just before) was testing out something requested by members of the community: the removal of level requirements to build the more powerful units. These units generally are very expensive, take a long time to build, and use a lot of upkeep, so their feeling was why restrict them? In the end, I think this would make it so the whole game would have to be toned down. Instead I want to see super units stay super units, and put level requirements back on them. But, it was a fun experiment to do along with the community. We like to try things out sometimes especially if the community can make a strong case for it. This system will be changed back for next patch, so last chance to mess around with it!

Lots of significant changes to server selection process. A few bugs were found that potentially allowed some players to escape the servers they should be assigned to, cascading into bad games for whoever they matched with. We also redid how we calculate the estimated pings, and while we were at it we revamped the region map to provide more detailed feedback on which servers are good, ok, and bad. Click the region icons near the bottom when you are queued in any online game to bring it up.

General Updates:

• main menu rework

• "Try Me" and "Try On" option added for AirMechs and some cosmetics

• pre-game timer is now 60 seconds in solo matches

• loadout cycling reduced from 3 to 2 for online and solo matches

• made Neo Cloak an activated ability

• added a melee sneak attack to Neo's Cloak

• Neo will now be slightly visible for the local player when cloaked

• Neo rework is still ongoing, so there will be some issues...

• improved targeting AirMechs in ground mode with Osprey's Heal Beam

• Osprey Heal Beam no longer overheals to power shield. Restore ability now has activated mode which overshields nearby units

• Osprey Heal Beam can lifedrain Enemy units. Try it out

• this is a work in progress...

• right trigger now fires Angel's Railgun when using gamepad

• added icons for AirMech heads

• Hero units now accept orders

• "Challenge" and "Defeat Pilot" Quests updated and re-enabled

• added progress bars when hovering over a Quest

• reduced level requirements on PvP Quests

• AirMech AI will no longer build in the pre-game phase

• reduced collision size of medium units

• Bomber no longer faces the mouse cursor when bombing

• Collection browse mode added back to the Inventory UI

• updates and improvements to server browser and latency checking

• boost Icons added back into menus and game UI

• added support for more Steam currencies

• in-game AirMail enabled for all players

• removed stray music fades from maps

Bug Fixes:

• Angel sniper shot should be working again

• Bomber rapid fire rate issue fixed

• fix for Neo not being able to shoot after using Backstab attack

• multiple crash and desync fixes!

• fixed Paladin guns popping when firing while walking, jumping, and throwing

• fixed Saucer getting stuck facing North when transforming from air mode

• fixed overlapping Ready button in loadout creation UI when in a lobby

• fixed VIP Shop filter getting reset when chat is opened

• fix for selected AI bots not being the ones that appear when starting a game

• fix for Ultimate Moneymaker showing incorrect description text in Strike

• fix for opening chat links when in a match and chat is minimized

• fix for opening the pause menu during endgame

• fixed up "drag to remove" in loadout creation UI, use right-click to remove a unit

• fix for Sets menu overlapping Inventory UI

• fixed highlight on "Destruction Detail" bar in options UI

• fix for hat slot appearing empty in AirMech customization UI

• fix for opening the Wastelands Market when the pause menu is opened

• fixed old Booster Pack bundles appearing in purchase dialogs

• fix for HUD not appearing when restarting a match

• fixed "Cancel Invite" for multiple players in a lobby

• fix for invisible Neo heads

• fix for units getting pushed up onto higher ground

• fixed blank preview tab in AirMech inspect dialog

• fix for practice pilots being ultra weak

• fixed some floating props on Thar and Salt

• fixed units not attacking the Fortress on Challenge 3

• fix for price buttons not showing up in unlock dialog

• fixed Market listing Cancel button overlapping the price

Balance Changes:

• Removed in-game level locks from all units (temporary experiment)

• Goliath build cost increased from 14500 to 17000

• Goliath HP decreased from 3600 to 3400

• Gorgon HP decreased from 5000 to 2250

• Gorgon shot damage decreased from 35 to 30

• Gorgon armor piercing increased from 35 to 65

• Gorgon carry weight decreased from 5200 to 3500

• Bertha build cost increased from 14500 to 17000

• Bertha splash range decreased from 6 to 2

• Turtle upkeep decreased from 3 to 2

• Gatty HP increased from 1100 to 1500

• Gatty shot damage increased from 16 to 24

• T45 build time decreased from 5 to 3

• Stinger build time decreased from 5 to 3

• Joker build cost increased from 1000 to 1500

• Bomber air speed reduced while charging Bombs

Another update! First thing you will notice is a new welcome screen with messages of the day and a quick link to patchnotes:

Last night we pushed AirMech Strike Update #252, Build 69114. The new holiday packs/bundles are also live, and the full Christmas event will be on momentarily. Nicholai has arrived and is regularly gifting players in chat with random rolls. A few more surprises are coming very soon...

The next set of changes for loadouts are in and we are getting close to having this done. Now you can use Tab to cycle loadouts (which you setup in the lobby) instantly. You currently cycle through all of your loadouts, but we will be restricting this to 2 or 3 loadouts which you will choose during the pregame. Currently you can still right-click units on the UI to make individual swaps, but this is just meant as a fallback if there are bugs with Tab. You should arrange your loadouts and name them accordingly so that swapping during the match is what you expect. One loadout could be for early game, one for guardians and ordanance, another for late game pushing. Get creative, and give us feedback on how this feels for competitive play.

About those new bundles! We have a ton of Christmas content, and wanted to combine that with Diamonds and Keys to offer some super values just during the holiday season. These will only be around for a short while, going away just after Christmas. Be sure to take a look at what they contain because the value really adds up for these. They have the same Diamonds as you'd get from a normal bundle, but with bonus Keys and lots of rare holiday pets, heads, and other cosmetics.

We're still on track to close out the year exiting Early Access and launching Season 1 of AirMech Strike! Join us in chat for lots of giveaways and fun.

General Updates:

• New Welcome screen on startup

• Tab instantly switches loadouts ingame

• Alternates now save in loadouts properly

• 3 Special Holiday Bundles added

• Do Not Disturb button moved to be easier to access

• Mic defaults to push to talk on new accounts (there is a game setting for this)

• Move mic status button so you can click on it easier to mute

• Gold VIP status now active for anyone with $50 USD (localized) lifetime spend

Bug Fixes:

• various desync and crash fixes

• Gold VIP auto-rolling should be fixed

• fix camera behavior at end of Salt matches

Snow is falling, so it was time to hang the lights up and get ready for Holiday merry making! The lobby has been given a makeover to get ready for our Christmas events. Keep an eye out for us adding more holiday content as we approach the big day!

A really nice fix with some rooms getting stuck with missing players. This gave us quite a headache to try and track down, because we could see players should be matching but would get stuck with players with the wrong state jamming the queue. Things should be running smoothly now, and just ask in chat if you suspect something is stuck.

Due to popular demand, we've made it possible to do 2v3 and 1v3 custom games against bots. You can't do 3v1, this is only for testing to see if you can win against the new awesome bots. It may be possible to 1v3 against the lower level bots (their difficulty is based on the order you unlock them in), but I would be extremely surprised if anyone can win 1v3 against Erik, Goh, and Samson. If you can do it be sure to save the replay, or even better put it on Twitch or YouTube!

Gold VIP changes are upon us! This was discussed a long time ago, and we realize we need to finish it before we leave Early Access. (we have a big checklist of things to do) We are removing the timed/expiring Gold VIP status and simplifying things. This will make it easier to understand, as well as carry over to Wastelands nicer. The "automatic" grant of Silver VIP has always been at $10 USD, and Diamond VIP at $120. We're making Gold VIP now automatic at a total of $50 USD spent over the lifetime of your AirMech account. There are some tweaks to how the bonus rewards stack and that will all be sorted soon, on the generous side.

What about players with a lot of Gold VIP Cubes? Or a lot of Gold VIP time? Most players know about the process to "pull" Gold VIP time off and turn it into Cubes. These cubes were used for various crafting recipes, and they will continue to work for that. And we'll all more that are for Wastelands (mentioning it here since the vast majority of people this applies to also have Wastelands). The Cubes themselves are being renamed to Gold Bars and Gold Coins. There is no conversion process, just their art and names are changing, which makes everything else still work nicely.

General Updates:

• add option for uneven teams for custom games (only for humans vs bots)

• show Diamond Rolls (and other rolls) when chat is minimized, and making it roll as you click and open it

• Helix gets an additional RPG for every point in his primary ability

• effects work for Angel Sniper Stasis shot

• Gold VIP Cubes changed to Coins and Bars

• Christmas and winter lobby themes

Bug Fixes:

• fix for rooms with AFK players (actually offline players)

• VIP Shop Tickets now function properly

• various crash fixes

• improve reconnect on Login server restart to reduce chance of dropping

We've got a large list of changes to bring over from our work on AirMech Wastelands. Many of these changes directly affect gameplay. Some AirMech abilities have been changed to include a charge up mechanic. A charge bar will appear over your mech's HP bar while charging. All AirMechs can now jump up to higher terrain with Spacebar. Press it twice to boost forward for a quick escape!

Unit deployment has been improved with a 'Deploy to Target' mechanic. Set a rally point for newly built units by pressing E. Press once to set the flag on your AirMech, twice to set it on the ground at your AirMech's location, and once more to clear the deploy to target behavior. Units will also deploy from the nearest friendly structure automatically by default. You can hold Ctrl when giving a build order to keep the unit in queue for pickup later. Veterans probably won't like this behavior, so we've added an option in the Gameplay Settings to swap the Ctrl keybind. This will hold all units in queue unless Ctrl is held when issuing build orders.

The new Jump/Boost system is 95% in place, just needs a little more tuning and tweaking, and then we'll balance it for all the classes so each has its own feel. The Boost is activated by doing a double jump in a direction, and it uses some Energy. If you would rather always Boost on jump, there is a game option to make it default that way. We still have a few bugs related to getting up on things that don't make sense, but we're aware of those and will be fixing it. Already it changes combat a ton and has been fun to play around with.

We reworked Chat a couple patches ago and didn't explain in detail how it works. We probably need to add a Chat tutorial! The main thing we set out to solve was accidentally chatting while ingame, which sucked. So we started fixing that and ended up making a lot of small changes. The most important thing to learn about the new chat is the double-Enter action. Tapping Enter twice will minimize or maximize chat. When chat is maximized, you can type and pressing enter keeps your cursor in chat. If chat is minimized, then every time you press enter the chat will get de-focused.

The intended flow is that most of the time when you are playing, chat is minimized, and if you see something you need to respond to, or want to message your teammate, you press Enter, type your message, and press Enter again and you're back playing. When chat has focus, you can use Tab to switch between channels. And just in case you didn't know, you can right-click their name and it will @name them.

General Updates:

• improvements to Helix grenade targeting and effects

• Carbon color Void mechs are now purple because that's cooler than orange

• add game option for how Jump/Boost works

• press Spacebar to jump while in ground mode, press again to boost forward at the cost of some fuel

• press E to set a rally point on your mech, press again to set it on the terrain, and once more to clear it

• updates/rework on mouse aiming

• units now deploy automatically at nearest friendly structure, hold Ctrl to store in queue

• swap Ctrl key behavior in Settings > Gameplay

• max build queue reduced from 8 to 6

• replaced Angel's Glide ability with Stasis Shot, which temporarily disables enemies

• Helix's ground guns replaced with rockets, hold to charge for more rockets

• Helix's missiles replaced with grenades

• Bomber's bombs now have a charge, level 4 bombs have napalm!

• right

• click in ground mode for Warthog's melee

• units are highlighted when the mouse cursor is over them

• Striker shield absorbs damage at the cost of energy again

• Striker sword now drains energy per successful hit

• Saucer deathray no longer consumes energy while charging up

• updates to Medic Osprey ground mode

• updates to some Challenge maps

• tweaks to the new player tutorial

• pressing Enter now focuses chat, Tab will switch chat channels

• added a shortcut to the shop from the lobby

• removed unused piercing stat from Whopper

Bug Fixes:

• various desync and crash fixes

• List PvP games in Watch tab again

• fixed zero Kudos reward on endgame screen

• potential long

• awaited fix for repeat Steam achievements

• fixed Blaster Guardian not firing while in air mode fix fully heal at outpost

• fixed a bug that prevented AirMechs from fully healing from an outpost

• fixes for main lobby

• fixed launching solo custom lobbies for players without server compatibility

• fixed missing icons on gamepad build menu

• fixed diamond purchases (for Steam users)

• fixed a crash when saving maps in the editor

• fixed launching published maps

• fixed AirMech button in main lobby

• fixed overlapping page buttons in AirMech customization UI

• fixed Helix's transformation when firing

• fixed Paladin AI using the Speed Aura

• fixed a desync when inviting players from the Friends window

• fixed market listings appearing in the shop after swapping menus

• fixed private listing symbol in market list view

• fixed Buy Now! button in market list view

• fixed spectator minimap sizing

• fixed some missing tiles on some Challenge maps

• fixed the scaffolding prop on Biohazard so players can walk over them

• minor prop fixes for Dust

• fixed missing background on password field for new account creation

New Lobby Unit UI

The temporary UI we had for selecting what units went in your loadouts was pretty bad. Non-standard units were not selectable, which loadout you were editing wasn't clear and many people were having problems with it. We've started in a rework for this and already it is much better. Clicking units will bring up their stats, which is not ideal--we want to have stats displayed for selected units in the same window. You currently have to drag units from the unit panel over to the 3D units in the world. This is not how we intend the final design to work, but it works best that way at this stage. More improvements coming!

Improved Deploy and Unit Control

We have some neat new gameplay features in this patch we are testing. The need to be near an outpost to deploy things started to feel frustrating to us, because we want to get lots of units out and keep the action going and it currently slows you down. So we increased the range for Deploy--to include the entire map! The E key will deploy units from the nearest owned structure. And we added a button near the completed units.

What's this switch on the button? It's very interesting actually...it's a toggle that changes "Deploy and wait at this Outpost" to "Deploy and move to my mech location" (but not follow me). I would definitely call this feature experimental because it feels like a lot of fun to use, but we haven't really considered how it could be used for good or bad in multiplayer. We're looking for feedback from players on this feature. If the community thinks it's good then it stays--tell us what you think!

The sub-orders for Following units are also getting improvements. The "move to where I click" sub-order now has a preview line showing the path units will take to get somewhere. And units should try to stay ahead of your AirMech, so you can push with them a lot easier. These systems are being tweaked as we play with them to try and make the units do what you expect them to.

Wastelands update: soon! I'd say an exact date if I have one. I had to filter out many Wastelands specific changes to isolate the Strike patchnotes! :)

Bugfixes/Changes

• Lobby Unit Loadouts rework (still a few bugs, but much better)

• Increase Deploy (E) range to infinite

• Deploy defaults to nearest Outpost

• Toggle button to Deploy and move to mech (experimental)

• Testing DX11 support, /dx11 command line option for the brave

• Fix BlackOps Angel fire points

• Add path line when giving "move to cursor" order

• Fix overlayed menu in Spectator mode

• Initial Teamcolor selection voting (in progress)

• Fixed a bug where non-VIPs had access to Sandbox mode

Known Issues

• Paladin's ultimate cannot be activated

• Muting preferences sometimes get reset somewhat randomly. We are looking for more info on how to reproduce this problem reliably so we can fix it.

• Bots in Custom games is not yet implemented

This is the 5th update to AirMech Strike since the huge reboot so we wanted to post this to the Steam news channel. Latest Patchnotes are always available ingame, and we'll consolidate them here when there is a good amount of new things or fixes. (scroll to the bottom for a bullet list of noteable changes)

Shop

After the initial work on Matchmaking and Custom rooms, then next most frequently asked for feature was the Shop. When we redid the menus, we figured one of the last things we'd need to add was the Shop. Most units and AirMech skins and customizations can be unlocked from the various setup panels, so you can preview things and then unlock them. We're keeping that in case you want to preview things, but we've also added a more traditional Shop layout to the menus.

Region Selection

Another significant new feature is the ability to include or exclude server regions, in addition to the automatic disabling of ones too far away. We'll automatically set a home region for you and select some of the areas we think will work best, but sometimes players are better at choosing where they play. For now there is a button in the Play menu called "Server Locations" where you can enable or disable regions. Green is on, Gray is off but available to be turned on, and red means it is too far away for automatic matching. Custom games are still possible however.

There have been fixes to the rendering selection to try and keep the new advanced post-process from enabling on lower spec machines including those with integrated graphics like laptops. Plus now when you select a lower than native resolution, the scaling will be smoother and look better. Definitely leave feedback if you are having any graphics problems, and include your settings and hardware if you know it.

Core Gameplay

Having units Follow you is a really cool addition to the game. Additionally, we added a way to tell units in Follow mode to go to a specific location. You'll see 3 options when units are Following--stop where you are, come to me and then stop, or go to where I click. This will also be added to gamepad with a new control mode soon.

If you haven't played AirMech Strike yet, there are many many other changes. Much of it is documented in the new ingame HUD through Tooltips and hotkeys hints (useful to turn those on in Settings). Gameplay is more in line with faster paced classic AirMech, with dynamic build queues that are not fixed to specific outposts.

New to Strike is the option to change out your Units during the game. Along with an increased build queue (8) and new Orders for your units. We're continuing to streamline the gameplay with everything focused on great 2v2 PvP gameplay.

Competitive Play

Season Zero is active and Ranking is live. This is just a test season and it won't last very long, just while we see how it is working and figure out where the tiers will settle.

Overall everyone has been super supportive, helping us identify the most critical things to fix or replace, leading to so many updates over the past week and a half. For players who weren't aware of the changes coming it was a bit confusing, but Wastelands is coming very shortly and with that everything should start to make sense again. We will of course announce it here when Wastelands access is starting to be available. It will be triggered from within AirMech Strike--more info on that soon.

Known Issues

• Gamepad support incomplete, but coming

• Unit setup in lobby is janky, preferrably setup units in pregame for now (being redone)

• Spectator UI has overlayed menu (will be fixed shortly)

• Anything missing will be available in Wastelands soon

Bugfixes/Changes

• Shop added

• Simple tutorial/guided match for first time players (easy to skip)

• Server region selection

• Reduce Warthog's close range damage bonus

• Rendering changes/improvements

• Lobby menu restructure (ongoing)

• Enter should toggle ingame chat properly

• Fixed heads/hats not showing up on Bomber

• Following units can be given more specific orders

• Fortress income given a balance pass (was too high)

• Improve target selection to prefer mechs over outposts

• Muting should work better (was not working on names with spaces in them)

• Mute players directly from info cards in a match (hover their mech at the top)

• Black screen at endgame bug has been fixed

• Teamcolor support for DeepSea Osprey

• Improve AirMech flying and hover sounds

• Improve Rank and XP circle progress at endgame screen

• Update spectator UI to use new dynamic minimap (fixes missing minimaps)

• Inviting players from their lobby player card should work right now

• Fallbacks for various bad lobby states

• Hopefully fix "invalid_sku" error condition

• Saucer armor increased to 80

• Quest updates as makes sense for Strike

• Fixed player name not always showing in endgame screen

• Can now invite players from Matchmaking menu

• Custom rooms can be set to private, not browseable (you need to invite everyone)

• Rings around player slots to help visualize size/team in lobby (temp visuals)

• Show mailbox if you have a waiting message, even if not VIP

• Add "power" button in menus to exit without digging in settings

• Testing lighting changes in lobby, player selectable

• Fixes to prevent units being dropped in salt piles on Salt

• Make AirMechs do more cool stuff when they die in the air

• Fix invisible enemies in lobby in Explore

• Allow Explore during more states of ready-ness

• More AirMech variant sounds added

• Graphics option to disable glow effect, should help slower computers with integrated graphics

• Change UI selection zones for units in Lobby to be more reliable

• Disable gamepad binding to switch to "console" UI since it breaks everything

• Adjust camera slightly up for Wreckz

• Double-pressing E no longer deploys all pending units

• Improved endgame sound effects

• Hide game options that don't make sense when Spectating

• Potential fix for sometimes getting the main menu while playing a game

• New "Follow" Order tells units to follow your AirMech

• Auto-repair removed, Repair mode now on Q key

• Swap units ingame, Right

• click to choose/swap, or Tab and drag

• Generators reboot, can heal/fuel mechs on/off Sockets!

• Leveler renamed Whoper, increases Upkeep limit

• Parts are not used (used in Wastelands instead)

• Pilots and Items also not used in Strike

• Season 0 started, new Rank Points system

• New Lobby design, fully 3D

• New Menus, press Esc to toggle in/out

• New Ingame HUD

• New Storm and Biohazard adapted from player created maps

• New Practice mode to battle all classic pilots in order of difficulty

One final thing to note, is that if you are a Silver VIP and did not recieve your Ancient Skull head (seen in the header image of this post) please let us know. We used this to initialy test the qualification for Wastelands access, and it didn't work as expected--but that's a good thing because it helped us fix the system to located these players. If you didn't get one, be sure to let us know either using the ingame bug report or just ask in chat if you see any devs around.

It's a busy week so we're getting right back to work!

Greetings, pilots! WarZone 1.1 is here, and deadlier than ever! We've rounded off a few corners a sharpened a few others to bring you the best weekly war in the wasteland.

-New 5 Star Map completion and Universal Difficulty: Keep a sharp eye on your current difficulty, or step it up a notch with these new features. Select difficulty right in your WarZone tac display, see it during matches, and now map completion stars correspond to the 5 difficulty levels you know so well! -Difficulty Amnesty for all: No matter your level, select ANY difficulty in any map! Yep, no more leveling your smurf to get creamed on Highway to Hell! -Ruthless is no longer Toothless: You asked for a challenge, well here it is. Insane damage and HP scalers for THE IRON HAND at maximum difficulty, and a huge score multiplier to make it worth the pain. -IRON 1 is in the fight: Play against the notorious IRON 1 in the toughest AI Versus battles! -Login screen field repair: Our killer new Login screen is streamlined and GTG, so no more cooking hot pockets during login! -IRON HAND and SATCOMM chat badges! Win any WarZone map for a slim chance at a cool new chat badge to show your allegiance in the rising tide of war. Will you side with the tyrannical hordes, or stand firm for Earth unified in peace? -Map Tweaks: The Great Wall now has a split Goliath wave, so no more ez mode turtling! The Keep is now AirMech sudden death, so stop dying and get a healer! Also, Highway to Hell has an improved unit spacer to make the infamous 5th wave a little more reasonable, no no easier! Get to it!

General Updates:

• added Iron 1 to Ruthless AI

• added Patchnotes and other Field Guide menus to the patching screen

• some changes to various Warzone maps

• new SATCOMM and IRON HAND badges

• added difficulty selection to the Warzone menu

• tweaked enemy unit stats and rewards for Warzone per difficulty

• removed Automatic difficulty selection

• tweaks for scoring in Warzone

Bug Fixes:

• fixed issues with low framerate on login menu

• fixed map publishing for AirMech Prime Booster owners and added additional error messages for any future issues

• fixed exiting to lobby after spectating, map editing, or playing a tutorial map

• fix for exiting a lobby via the gear icon

• fix for infantry falling through the terrain when entering the Southern outpost on The Keep

• fixed some transforming issues on Dogs of War

• fixed some floating assets on some Warzone maps

• fix for names being cut off on Leaderboards

• fix for Rocketeer animation when occupying an outpost

• fixed Fourth of July set not being searchable

Balance Changes:

• Void units are much stronger!

This is an important time of the year for Carbon. July 4th is not only Independence Day in the US, but also Carbon's 5th birthday! We've packed this update full of new content to celebrate. New bundles will also be on sale! Check out the contents of each one, as there are some previously unreleased goodies to be found. These new bundles won't be around for long and can only be purchased once. Don't miss out!

Seven new maps have made their way into the queue, but you'll only find one available at first. Each day of the week will bring a different Warzone into play. Those who have proven their skills on these new maps might find a special item that allows them to play that map at any time. These treasures can only be obtained on the battlefield. New technologies have been discovered at these locations. Use them to greatly increase your mechs power and overcome the Iron Hand's forces.

There are a few balance updates to discuss here as well. Buster seems to have fallen out of players' loadouts since its range was reduced, so range is being bumped up a bit. To compensate, it's also losing 5 armor. Increasing Jackal's upkeep to 2 did work out as intended, but it wasn't a very popular change among PvP players. We're going to experiment a bit more and try out a cost increase instead. A couple of patches earlier, there were a lot of changes to carry stats. This hit Osprey and Helix the hardest, as carry speed, capacity, and the Lifter ability were all nerfed at once. At the same time, both of these mechs have very powerful primary abilities that are often the target of complaints. Missile damage and repair rate will be going down, and carry capacity will be restored to 2540 each. Be sure to post balance feedback on the forums. The Balance Council is always looking for more opinions!

Discuss this update at http://airme.ch/29ndhy1

General Updates:

• new Iron Hand Bomber for the login menu

• new one-time purchase bundles added

• added 7 new Warzone maps on a daily rotation

• Uber PowerUps found on Warzone maps greatly increase the strength of your primary ability

• added weekly Leaderboards for new Warzone maps

• added leaderboard notifications at endgame

• added a slight delay before victory is shown at endgame

Bug Fixes:

• fix for Baloom not triggering an explosion when passing over an enemy mech

• fixed alignment with Twin Peaks' minimap viewbox

• fixed missing Compliance stat in the Field Guide

• fixed Blueprints link (was renamed from Skills)

• fix for clicking the timed quest notification outside of the Home tab

• fixed some collision issues and floating assets on Challenge maps

• fix for enemy wave spawns on Challenge 10

Balance Changes:

• Buster attack range increased from 18 to 19

• Buster armor decreased from 60 to 55

• Jackal upkeep decreased from 2 to 1

• Jackal build cost increased from 2500 to 3000

• Helix missile damage decreased from 60 to 50

• Helix carry capacity increased from 2380 to 2540

• Osprey heal beam repair rate decreased by 20%

• Osprey carry capacity increased from 2380 to 2540