AirMech "Big & Scary" Update
Halloween has come to AirMech! Along with it, a major overhaul of the UI as we move closer to full open beta on Steam. A lot of balance changes, new Global chat, the start of Friends and Faction systems, almost too much to list!

Halloween Treats
The Pumpkin King appears! Our most outrageous AirMech Variant so far, the "Pumpkin" Saucer transforms into a giant monster with vines for legs and fiery eyes. As with all of our Variants they are just cosmetic alterations of the base AirMechs, but prove to be very popular collector's items and are only offered once a year. Also available are Halloween Pets: Ghost Buddy, Jack O' Lantern, and Vampire Bat. There's also "Pumpkin" Bombs and a Candy Bucket item. All items will be gone after November 6th, so get them while you can!

User Interface 3.0
A significant rework of the UI has gone in which combines elements from Dota 2 and Starcraft 2 that we like, and provides a solid foundation for the next set of features we want to add. The most functional change is that Global Chat has a reserved spot in the UI so it can always remain open in the menus. There's also Faction and Party tabs added, with functionality coming soon. As we move everything over to the new UI we will have some bugs and missing features, but rest assured we are hard at work to get everything done.

New Referral System
We really like it when people bring others to AirMech and have wanted to make this easier and more reliable. You'll see a major change with the new UI for players who have not set their referrer yet, which should greatly increase the number of people getting credit. Many games only let you set a referrer when you sign up, but we let you set it up to level 5 and have also increased the referral rewards. When you set your referrer, you get 1000 Kudos, and the person who you listed will be able to get Diamond rewards from the very first referral. We think it's win-win for everyone!

Ultimate Samson Awakens
If you are lucky you might see Ultimate Samson make an appearance in Global Chat. When he shows up, he will ask that you /roll for a chance to win Diamonds! This has been a lot of fun and are looking at ways to expand this system. You might see other AirMech personalities show up in chat to give you some tips in response to certain questions.

Patch Notes for AirMech Beta version 13071

- New Variant: "Pumpkin" Saucer (Halloween)
- New Unit: "Pumpkin" Bombs (Halloween)
- New Item: Candy Bucket (Halloween)
- New Pet: Ghost Buddy (Halloween)
- New Pet: Jack O' Lantern (Halloween)
- New Pet: Vampire Bat (Halloween)
- New Variant: "Deep Sea" Osprey (included with Beta Bundle)
- New Menu System
- More Matchmaking Options
- Global Chat now active
- Referral System Overhaul
- Twin Peaks map has been reworked
- New Server Locations: Manchester (UK), Frankfurt (Germany), Johannesburg (South Africa)
- AirMechs now do 75% damage to units
- Preview of "Power System" which will be like upkeep and replace Unit Cap
- Fog of war displayed correctly on Mini-Map
- Bunkers added to Outposts for Infantry defense

We are planing on moving to Open Beta on Steam soon (Valve Time) but for now you can still get early access by purchasing either the AirMech Beta Bundle or the Steam Starter Pack. Even though we are in Beta, we are not wiping or resetting any content, just ask any of our Alpha testers! We're happy for people to gain some advantage by playing early and helping us test, so jump on in!

AirMech Beta Update + Moon Festival Event

New Units, Matchmaking, and a special seasonal Event highlight the most recent AirMech update. Still in closed Beta testing, players can gain early access by purchasing the Beta Bundle which unlocks much of the content and is retained after full release of the game.


Three new Units have been added: Turtle (walker), Aegis (turret), and Grinder (melee tank). Each one introduces new strategic options on the battlefield allowing players to develop more specialized roles. All new Units are included with the Beta Bundle, and will be added to your account the next time you log in.


A couple new Ultimates have been added as well. Ultimates are non-PvP variations of existing Units or Pilots which amplify their abilities to extreme levels. They were originally created as a response to Solo mode players who enjoyed having an advantage, and didn't mind that they could not use them against human opponents, so we thought this was a great solution. Ultimate Erik gains XP ingame at 150% the normal rate, giving him usually a 2x advantage in levels. Ultimate Money Maker generates credits ingame at 2x the normal rate, but it otherwise the same.


The first track from Front Line Assembly has been added as menu music! As a refresher, we teamed up with Front Line Assembly to create an original soundtrack for AirMech, which will be available for purchase on November 13th. We will be integrating the music over time by breaking down the tracks and making proper loops of everything. The music was authored with this in mind and there's a really wide range of styles in the album. It is a great finishing touch to the game!


It's Moon Festival time! We wanted to do something fun for the holiday so we are rolling out our "cake" social Achievements. Through October 4th, the Mooncake Item is available in your inventory and while it gives no bonuses, it does give you the Cake buff and makes you eligible to "share cake" with other players doing the same. You can only get credit for sharing cakes with Matchmaking.


Matchmaking! This is a big step for AirMech, the first implementation of matchmaking. Right now we limit games to 2v2 PvP games so we can keep games cycling fast and gather data for our next steps. We're finding bugs, fixing them, and we really appreciate everyone's help by using the Matchmaking system. We also have our first pass of Ranking added to the game. Playing matchmade games will enter you in this system and your score will be modified based on an Elo system. Both of these areas will evolve quickly over the coming weeks and we love getting feedback on them!


Here's a breakdown of changes for AirMech Beta version 12311:


- New Unit: Turtle (slow walking robot, retracts to protective mode)

- New Unit: Aegis Turret (shoots down missiles/rockets)

- New Unit: Grinder Tank (modified industrial driller)

- New Pilot: Ultimate Erik (Solo games only)

- New Unit: Ultimate Money Maker (Solo games only)

- New Pet: Husky Pup (designed by HuskyStarcraft)

- New Pet: Moon Rabbit (limited time only)

- New Achievements: Cake Sharing

- New flair items: Magenta and Cyan colored contrails

- Trial AirMechs/Units/Pilots changed around

- Grinder turret renamed to “Gatty”

- Contrail Flair now wider

- New music when in the Main Menu (first track from Front Line Assembly)

- New Loadout Slots - now more, work in all modes, can be renamed

AirMech Version 11669



Updates:

- New Warthog Variant: Pirate

- Switched guns/armor passive abilities of the Striker and Warthog

- Striker now has Air-to-Air Homing Rockets Ability when in Air Mode (replaces the Air Shield Ability)

- Striker missile base damage set to 60

- New Collection UI that shows all the items in your inventory (under the Social tab)

- New Gameplay tips appear when waiting to respawn

- Stasis fields now affect grounded AirMechs

- Creep spawns from Level 0-2 now have Light Armor. Level 3 Creeps have Medium Armor

- New Guardian Ability icon

- Made self destruct blast damage not hurt allied team objects



Bug Fixes:

- Fixed the description numbers of the gun passive ability

- Fix for the respawn cooldown timer and gameplay tips displaying when spectating a game

- Fix for simultaneous respawning messing up respawn display counters

- Fixed a bug where the promo images would sometimes appear over the lobby ui

- Fixed a bug where Boomers would attempt to go after mines and CTF core units

- Fixed a bug where Boomers would stutter when team had map control

- Fixed a bug where AI would attempt to destroy mines and CTF cores

- Fixed a bug where the player’s AirMech would get stuck firing if they clicked on the power station/outpost icons

- Fixed a bug where the main weapon audio would sometimes play over the secondary ability audio

AirMech Version 11507

Updates:
- New Unit: Stasis Mine
- New Flair Item: Missile Party Streamers
- New Flair Item: Red tracers
- Last Stand map has been updated
- Added a Random Map option
- Reduced MoneyMaker credit production and kill XP by -25%
- Updated smoke trails and particle effects
- Added weapon/armor level display for units on the Customize Army UI
- Player must be Level 10 to unlock Husky pilot
- Slight model tweaks to Warthog
- Small tweak to Osprey NVision air model
- Update infantry animation state play rates to respect the 'slow move' effect entering outposts
- Update animation speed state when 'slow move' state changes (polish fix)
Bug Fixes:
- Fixed a bug in CTF regarding picking up your own core at your base
- Fixed a bug where units would sometimes not take the correct order
- Fixed bugs related to the Survival spectator ui
- Fixed a bug related to the spectator freecam
- Fixed a bug where in AirMechs would appear to fire with their arms lowered
- Fixed bug with Spiral map not ending after wave 9

AirMech Version 11330

Updates:
- New Osprey Variant: N-Vision
- New Pilot: Husky
- New Item: Red Tracers
- New Survival Map: Last Stand
- Slight buff to Warthog Air/Ground damage
- Doubled Honeypot supply range
- Slight Bucky buff for anti-tank purposes. Range was increased from 20 to 23
- Reduce AirMech repair/recharge rate in CTF mode when carrying the Core
- Reduce Air damage range falloff
- Tweaks to Survival map Wave 7,8,9 and general rebalancing on Spiral and Survival maps
- Updated Missile trail effects
- Flair shot colors now cycle if you have more than 1 equipped
- Updated translations from Steam Translation System
- Added “/mute” and “/unmute” commands

Bug Fixes:

- Fixed bugs related to Warthog ground Airmech targeting
- Various collision bugfixes for unit projectiles
- Fix target ranging bug on attack fort order
- Fixed a bug related to Team Color not showing up correctly when coming out of network game
- Fixed a bug where AIs could get locked in place, doing nothing, trying to pickup a built unit
- Fixed a bug where the Bomber's “Mantis Strike” could be shot down
- Fix spectator pan keys to use correct key bindings, and minor cleanup to Spectator UI

AirMech Version 11196

Updates:
- Added new game server locations: Paris and Chicago
- New server location world map for filtering servers based on a player’s location
- Updated the vote kick dialog to be less obtrusive and have vote hotkeys
- Updated to ‘kick due to ping’ mechanism (should be more forgiving/reduce button camping).
- Map images have been updated in the Create Game screen
- New quest icons for CTF based quests
- Fixed/removed some pre-existing creeps on some maps
- Added in a new ‘Social’ tab in the UI (work in progress)
- Localization updates with latest suggestions from the Steam Translation Server
- Balanced AirMech air damage and movement speeds while shooting
- Removed Osprey healing penalty on taking damage when in air mode
- Added air mode damage falloff at 60% range to AirMechs
- Added a new indicator when the game is in Overtime
- Updated Fortress front wall in CTF mode
- CTF cores will now show up on the mini-map and will blink
- Add chat messages to replays

Bug Fixes:
- Bug fix to AirMech ground form targeting
- Bug fix for controller layout not saving when exiting that Settings UI
- Replay bug fix for when a player left the game
- Bug fix for CTF Return and Score stats
- Fix for UI glitch when entering a new online game lobby
- Warthog bugfix to lose booster when out of energy
- fix end game UI to properly show XP accumulation and level up