During the development of M.A.S.S. Builder, we've seen players create an uncountable amount of M.A.S.S. units. One of them being thematically elemental robots has always caused distress to players with how property damages work in our game, conflicting their interest in making these "God of Thunder Swordmaster Machine" or "Fire Breathing Dragon M.A.S.S." style work since some enemies has extremely high resistances and they felt compelled to just play with a lesser version of their imagination.



So in 0.9.0, we've decide to totally remove the min-maxing element out of property damage and make each element as similar in power (still with their characteristics of BURN/FREEZE/WEAK) as well as only slightly stronger that RAW when their special properties proc. For gameplay discussions, here's what will be happening.

• Removed elemental disadvantages from the game, there are now only either neutral or advantage with property damages.
  
• Every enemy now has almost the same property damage resistance with every property damage. Property advantages will only result in around 5% to 10% more damage when correct element is used now. Players who bring multiple elements can still take advantage of it, but they aren't forced to or be punished now.
  
• Architecture and tech nodes now make property damage much more effective than before. Players who don't invest in property damage will now have around 30% less damage when using weapons with property damage in comparison to raw damage while those investing an architecture node (such as Revenant) will make this number back to 0% less damage. This should allow players to specifically use Architectures and Tech nodes to counter the lowered damage and perform as well as other methods of play through property debuffs.
  
• Balance special debuffs to match the new powers as best as we can.
  
• M.A.S.S. type enemies (including in PvP) is not effected by any status effects, but their property damage resistance are now lower than Quarks.

Now your question might be, "What if one property is extremely effective in PvE, how will you fix this? It's always a problem of either too strong or too weak with their special effects like BURN being meta once again?"

We'd like to answer that with "Let them be too strong, as M.A.S.S. Builder development has been going on, we don't think balance is required in PvE. Players must be able fulfill their fantasy and have fun with the game. To the abyss with balancing, fun comes first."

More Quarks improvement this week, showcasing the new Quark that will be in the next 0.9.0 update. As you can see from the design art weeks ago, we're trying to upgrade our Quark Enemies production, making them more detailed, looks better, and maybe, cooler.



And here's a still image of the front and back. There's still more to do on this Quark, making it as close to the menace we've shown as possible with visual effects and animations. Hope we can show you the finished one soon.



Discord: discord.gg/quS7E46
Feedback Hub: {LINK REMOVED}bit.ly/3wpWofe

Welcome back to another WIP update. This week, we'd like to share some of the balance update coming to 0.9.0 regarding speed. But first, let us talk about the missions introduced in 0.8.0. Those missions are how we imagined structures and landscapes of the world to be, and we'd like to capture those feelings of an open space rather than corridors. They do make traversing the area quite timely, especially for those with low acceleration, and missions with large gaps in between were not quite satisfying.

With that, we'll be introducing a new feature we'd internally call the boost speed curve. We wanted a method to help players go through each area quickly, but increasing their speed as a whole would effect every other aspect of gameplay, thus we came up with this so called boost speed curve.

Before this feature, players used to have an instant push in the direction they boost and their speed drops to a constant. With the new boost speed curve, players will be able to gain speed after the drop and the longer you boost, the faster you'll be able to go, allowing traveling through wide, open areas much faster, easier than before.



Aside from boost speed, we're also working on improving close combat attack speed. 0.8.0 was a success in making close combat a better experience as many have mentioned they're having a great time playing with close combat weapons, Quantum Breaks, and many other builds of it. We'd like to take it further and improve on the aspects that are still improve-able, thus, we're now looking at the attack speed. We'll be adding in a feature that increases the speed of attacks the deeper a player combos into. Opening hits are still the same, but the farther a player goes into combo attacks, the faster they'll swing their weapon(s). Combine this with the increasing damage multiplier in later combo hits, we think this is something that will further improve satisfaction when using close combat weapons.



That's the two new things we can reveal for now but there's a lot more other balance changes/improvements coming to the game in 0.9.0. As a reminder, our goal is to make the game fun and we're committing to it.

Discord: discord.gg/quS7E46
Feedback Hub: {LINK REMOVED}bit.ly/3wpWofe

Let's step aside from multiplayer discussions this week into some short preview. As we've mentioned in our plans for 0.9.0, we're adding in new Quarks to the game. This is part of a long term Quark (and production quality) improvement plan that we've been doing every update and we're just ready to reveal some new designs, artwork only though. We wanted them to be more dangerous than those big ones walking around, basically on a primal level but more, and they'll have more depth with more abilities than just running after you and SMASH.

Thank you for all the feedbacks you have provided. Your concerns, possible issues that may rise, the desire for a gameplay you wanted to see, and everything that was said, we've shared and discussed it extensively among ourselves throughout these three weeks. Now before we get into answering questions, we felt that we must mention this to every one of you first.

M.A.S.S. Builder, as a core, is a mech-building game where you can bring your creations out to play. The core gameplay of it is collecting parts through provided missions, create and modify your M.A.S.S. unit, and have fun with it. We are not creating the next "mech fighting e-sports," neither "THE MECH MOBA," nor "online MMO live-service mech game." No, multiplayer is an extension to the core game mentioned above, and it is by no means to become the main focus of our game. We hope that this do not disappoint you much and that you'll still be with us on this journey to create the ultimate mech-builder with various of customisation options available for the various types of builders playing our game. The core concept of multiplayer is to allow players to show their creations to others. That's the whole purpose of multiplayer in our opinion.



With that said, here's the answer to the FAQ! That will be all for today, we hope you read through it and understand our perspective on these big upcoming features. If you still think we haven't answer your questions, feel free to ask more or show your concerns in this topic within this week and we'll add it into the FAQ when we have time to answer it.

General
Can you explain networking, netcode, things like that in simple terms?
We're working with P2P connections. We will not utilise any dedicated server aside from what is provided by the framework for account authentication (steam user, and for possible cross-store in the future). We don't have the resources (remember we're an indie team of six) to manage a dedicated server for global usage.

Can we lock our game session for private plays?
Yes, we will provide a settings for the host to select whether they're hosting a private or public room where other players can match into.

Any special rewards from these modes?
No, we don't want players to feel compelled to play with others in order to unlock something.

Why are you working on both PvE and PvP at the same time? Why not focus on one? How about finishing the story first?
One, because we deemed the core part of the game stable and filled with features and systems we wanted up to a good point already. Multiplayer is next on the line and one of the final large feature on our list so we're doing it here in 0.9.0 and 0.10.0.

Two, because we needed to design the framework required by both alongside other things at the same time to avoid a half-baked infrastructure with bad UI and UX. We'll prioritize one over the other after those designs are finished and will announce our next plans when we can.

PvE
What do you mean by 4 player and 6 player modes? Does this mean we need randoms so we can fill a minimum of 4 or 6 to play co-op? I don't want to play with randoms.
4 and 6 player modes basically is the maximum amount of players in those missions. You can always play at the minimum of two players if the mission allows (most are, in our designs), but we'll set the difficulty to be as if the mission was meant to be played by more players. Also, you will not be able to play co-op missions solo.

What do you mean if the mission allows? What kind of missions can be expected?
Speaking frankly, we're not just creating every mission to be simple mindless killing. This meant that every mission we're creating must be crafted to match the minimum amount of player and scale up or downwards somehow. Sure there will be missions that resembles the single player challenge, now played with friends trying to survive as far as they can, but we also wanted missions where players are separated from each other, requiring coordination to progress through the mission itself.

Making missions completeable with two players with just number scaling limit our designs so there will be missions that require more players at a minimum. Imagine if we wanted a mission that required players to interact with objects on one side of the map so others on the other side can enter another locked area, or a boss with mechanics that lock players or put them into another area. Allowing 2 player minimum in these missions limit how much the boss or the mission itself can interact with you players and we don't want that.

Can you talk more about the first phase of PvE itself, what will we get to play first?
Right, two weeks ago we mentioned a 4 player mode and 6 player mode, but after more design discussions, we will go with one misison for 2 - 4 players and one designed for 4 - 8 players instead of a 2 - 6 for larger group of players. As you can see, the first one will have a minimum requirement of two players while the other will require four. Both will be objective/mechanics based and will be balanced appropriately by the minimum number of players.



How about the future, the ending of PvE in your eyes?
We cannot talk about them at the moment.

Can we play the story with friends?
The simple answer is no. The long answer is that our multiplayer cannot just simply take story missions and scale up for higher player counts. Each story mission is designed for those single player experience and your story progression has no relation with the multiplayer mode which if were to change, is to basically change a lot of things in the background works.

So you'll add bots into the missions for us if we wanted to play those missions but don't have enough people?
No, creating AI helpers, as mentioned in our AMA, will require unprecedented amount of work that we don't have time to work with. If you can't find players to play those kind of missions together and do not wish to use the matchmaking system, then you won't be eligible for those missions.

Will there be friendly fire?
No, friendly fire is not something we see as fun in our designs. It's a grief-enabling mechanics and will cause more frustration than fun.

Will there be local co-op? Or split-screen co-op?
While we wanted it at first, after working on system and network designs and with how we tied our game to Steam, we have come to an internal conclusion of no local/offline co-op. No, there won't be any split-screen co-op as well. You need to be online and connected to a platform to play M.A.S.S. Builder multiplayer.

Why don't you start small first? Give us just a simple mission to play with or something, why talk big about so many modes and large scale stuffs.
We'll be doing that, but we need to get our vision of the mode out first to discuss with you all. We don't want players to misunderstand anything so if there are any concerns, just like this time, we can start a discussion with all of you during this design phase. When work starts and design is set in stone, we won't be able to change things easily. Feedback is extremely valuable to us and the past two weeks have helped us learn what might be possible issues with our designs.

PvP
Tell us more about the gameplay modes of PvP. You've only mentioned a 1v1 deathmatch and 3v3 objective match. Can we also have 3v3 deathmatch or single player deathmatches?
Yes, the two modes that we wanted to make available on PvP launch are only those two we've mentioned, a 1v1 deathmatch and a 3v3 objective match. With how our game is played and how we wanted EVERY creation to be viable, deathmatches aren't healthy to that vision. Creating objective-based mechanics and missions mitigate the difference in builds and will allow players with different playstyles to mesh well and compete better than having everyone plays the game as a third-person-shooter. We wanted everyone and their creations to be able to have fun and not be forced to play something they don't want to do, that is never our vision. Each map will have its set mode and you cannot change it, so a mode created for 1v1 will not be available as a 3v3 map. They have their own ruleset and size and every new map might have new objectives.

What kind of objectives can players look forward to? Are you creating a MOBA? Can you clarify?
First, as the definition of MOBA is a multiplayer online battle arena, I'd can accept that we're creating a MOBA but not in the sense of large maps with lanes and whatnot. We're creating mid-sized maps where it will take only a few seconds to get from one side to the other. You can see in the two last preview we've provided, those represent the size of the 3v3 map.

Now towards rulesets. Players will most likely (I say this as it is not set in stone yet) receive what we call "multipliers" from getting kills but no score at all. We will then provide a small window to score, either by collecting items, controlling an area, or something else along the line, and the higher "multipliers" you have, the more you can score for your team. After the objective phase ends, your multiplier will reset and it's back to mayhem killing phase. This, in our designs, will allow players of all sorts of builds to shine. Maybe a team of people just rushing to fight can destroy all units inside an area and take over the area, maybe long-range players will try to fight and another with shield can hold ground for others to play, it's those sort of things that we wanted to create out of these rulesets. Keep in mind, these are not set in stone and we'll talk more about it when we're ready. Maybe the next time we'll show something, it'll be completely different as we might've found something better to create. But you get the idea, EVERYONE and EVERY BUILD must be able to play. That's the sole purpose of our game, it's for everyone to be able to show their creations and have fun with it.

What are the session implications. Can we join on-going games and just have some mindless fun?
No, we are doing P2P and you cannot join on-going games. You will have to be there before the match starts and it will be just that group of players in the room until it ends. Everyone will be required to connect to the host first and foremost, each other next, and then the game can start after everyone is connected. In case of the host disconnecting or leaving, a new host will be assigned. However, if you're disconnected, you will be able to rejoin the room. If you quit before ending, you will not be able to join other games and will be forced to rejoin.

Hosts will also have a choice between creating private or public games, and will be able to kick players out of their game before it starts for whatever reason they wanted to, but not more than that.



Please tell us more about PvP tuning. How will you separate them from PvE? Class-based or preset?
As M.A.S.S. Builder is a game of customization and creativity, we want players to be able to tune their M.A.S.S. units in the same way they do in singleplayer and use whatever they want to use. This means we're not creating and "class" or "preset" for you to choose from, you will still tune your units in the same way you do before through the tuning page. For nodes themselves, after reading all the feedbacks these past weeks, we've decided that there will be units and sub-units for each category specialized for PvP itself. We understand a lot of players wanted to use what they're familiar with from singleplayer so we'd bring them over with a few adjustments for PvP. There will be only one tier and all of them will be unlocked without any requirements. It's fair game how you tune and experience will be the deciding factor.

On the topic of large scale fights and large maps?
We're experimenting with maximum of 8 players in PvE and 6 in PvP for that purpose. A lot of M.A.S.S. units running in the same game space will most likely be overpowering for some PC and if everyone cannot have a good experience, multiplayer will be limited to lower number of players.

PvP balancing will be a nightmare isn't it? Can we expect frequent updates to balance the mode out?
If it's not balanced in the first week, it'll stay that way until the next update months later. That is how we have always worked and we will keep that kind of schedule. This is a reason we wanted objective-focused missions instead of pure deathmatch or killing-focused where it's a game of using the "meta" build to kill the other person.

We'd hate if players are forced to play one build over the other and it's a build they don't want to play, even though we know it'll exist in some form in PvP and it's unavoidable. We'll try our best to work on it and we promise we'll kill any meta that happens until there's no meta except "just play anything" left.

What if the PvP scene is dead and no one is playing it.
Then it is what it is. As we've mentioned, PvP is an extension of the core game. We will work on it and will keep improving it but we will not make it the main selling point of the game over the aspect of a mech builder. Armor parts, weapon parts, accessories, missions, and etc. will always be the more important aspect of M.A.S.S. Builder and we intend to keep it that way.

Welcome back to another WIP update. We've talked Co-op PVE Multiplayer last week, so this week, it will all be about the PvP Multiplayer. There are a lot of things that we'll still need to flesh out first for PvP so let's discuss some of them that we're certain will be in the game or how will things work out. With that said, we'll be answering to feedbacks on both PvE and PvP multiplayer in the next week WIP update so feel free to leave your feedbacks in the comments, in our discord, or in the Nolt feedback hub.

First, let's talk about PvP modes. For now, we're settling with some basic modes. First, we'll have a 1v1 deathmatch, where players just mindlessly pit their M.A.S.S. units against each other in combat. This will be a simple mode with a simple ruleset, there's nothing much except two players fighting to get the most kill count within a limited amount of time or reaching a set kill count first, either of those.


Image shows a simulation of what we wanted and not actual footage of PvP

With that out of the way, we can now talk about the second mode, which is the 3v3 mode. In this mode, with no name at the moment, players will be fighting against each other, but not to score kill counts. Instead, those kills will be score multipliers when objectives arrive. Players will then complete simple objectives, be it collecting items or interacting with objects. In design, we wanted this 3v3 mode to have players not that focused on killing each other, as that will only benefit certain builds and limit playstyles, creating toxicity and discord among players.

Since we're on the topic of builds, let's also discuss on our vision of balance in PvP. PvP will have a separate tuning page from PvE tuning. Status tuning isn't a problem at all, since we wanted everyone, new and old players to receive the same experience and have decided for now that we'll use either a point system for players to put into the various status available, straight on as is, or a tuning that is unlocked and scaled to the same power level. However, on the topic of tech nodes, we're still discussing internally on how that will work, might be a system where we provide a set of nodes only available for PvP and unlocked everything at the start, or might be some other methods. The point is, we want everyone to be at the same power level, and only experience will help one win against another.

That will be all we can say about PvP at the moment and is our current vision, something we wanted to create at the moment for PvP. We'll respond to your feedbacks on both PvE and PvP next week, so discuss among yourselves and tell us about it!

Discord: discord.gg/quS7E46
Feedback Hub: {LINK REMOVED}bit.ly/3wpWofe

Welcome to another weekly WIP update of M.A.S.S. Builder. We're still working to flesh out the parts of multiplayer and we'd like to discuss with you about them. We've mentioned we'll both be doing co-op and player versus player PvP in our multiplayer modes and both of them required extensive design to make it good, so let's talk about what we're doing to both of them. For this week, we'll focus on the PvE or the Co-op side where players help each other.

In our designs, we wanted Co-op to be mostly against Quarks in contrast to PvP which will be against M.A.S.S. Units. Now, how are we designing these so-called Co-op? We're thinking of two modes of play currently, a four-person and a six-person co-op mode. But why these two player counts? For four-person missions, we're thinking of objective-based missions where some players will be required to perform some kind of objective or role. For six-person missions, it will most likely be a large battlefield where each can cooperate in a massive fight with explosions going off everywhere. Both of these modes will have Quark bosses special to their mode and it should require players to cooperate to take these bosses down.



And don't worry about finding enough friends to play with, we're working on a matchmaking system that even a solo player can join a co-op session to play in these missions. If you're a group of two or three, getting another group or solo players to join in these mission should not be difficult, and everyone should be able to experience these missions. If you've got any ideas, share it to us in this post or our discord!

Discord: discord.gg/quS7E46
Feedback Hub: {LINK REMOVED}bit.ly/3wpWofe

Welcome! To the first "what's next" of 2022! We'd like to first put out a disclaimer that this won't tell you everything we're doing, but only the major parts of the update that we'll need to finish before we'll update M.A.S.S. Builder to version 0.9.0. There will be other small improvements (like balance changes and QoL updates) as well as small additions to further better the game. With that out, let's talk on what we're planning for 0.9.0. What's coming in this long-awaited multiplayer update.

Multiplayer Alpha Phase
Let's get the biggest thing out there first, multiplayer. We speculated multiplayer as a whole to take at least 7 months and first wanted to make 0.9.0 be the long pause. However, we thought it would be best to get a smaller version, like a test version out first to check if we're doing it right and that no critical problems are found by the time we announce full multiplayer compatibility.

Multiplayer Alpha Phase is mainly to test things out. The aim is to first create a working lobby where players can join each other in a session. This is to check if there are any syncing or network issues, players seeing the same things or not, can others see their movements with less delay as possible, things like that.

That is the bare minimum, so expect some kind of empty space where you all can show off your M.A.S.S. units and run around with no objectives with other players in 0.9.0. We'll keep you updated on our progress.

To end about Multiplayer, we know you might wonder on which kind of gameplay modes are we planning to create, what about balances, or player counts. We ask that you wait for more information when we are ready to reveal them later. Small steps at a time so we don't trip.



New Missions
While we have full focus into the multiplayer update, we cannot deny that the game needs to progress further towards the end of its single player campaign. This means that in the next update, we will continue working on Campaign missions.

There will be at least two new missions available, and if we have time from multiplayer, we'll add in one more of either a challenge (takes a lot of time to create one that's different yet challenging) or a hunt (takes less time, still needs to be fun and hectic just like the latest one with explosions all over).

New Quarks
We're planning to introduce a lot of new Quarks. It's been a long way and we've promised Quarks that behave differently, varying attacks and behaviors a long time ago. We've been constantly adding one or two each update just like the exploding one introduced in 0.8.0. It felt refreshing for us to see players having fun with them in the newest hunt.

With that, we'll be working on many more of them, having them fullfill some kind of purpose that's not just "run headlong into you" and "me smash" kind of thing. We're also be updating some old ones that were never re-used due to some annoying mechanics they have (hello flying fish Quarks).

Other improvements
While 0.8.0 introduced a lot of things, it also came with lots of problems. Balancing player status are one thing, optimization is another, visual effects and all. They certainly took a toll on players' PC and we're working to reduce effects cluttering, instances where players suddenly loses FPS, more balancing to make a lot of tech nodes more useful, and etc.

We cannot promise we'll fix them all, but we'll try our best to get to most of them.

Discord: discord.gg/quS7E46
Feedback Hub: {LINK REMOVED}bit.ly/3wpWofe

Hello everyone, this is Vermillion Digital team. First of, we'd like to thank you for the continuous support for M.A.S.S. Builder. We've finally reached a 100,000 units sales, and without your creations, your "builds," and your kind words even when we're this late in providing a promised major update, we would not be here, able to do the things we loved. We'll continue working on M.A.S.S. Builder to make it into one of the best game of the mecha genre, and we hope you'll continue to look forward on the contents and updates we'll be pushing out in the future.



With that out, let's see why 0.8.0 was delayed to such extent. First, let's talk about what 0.8.0 brought to the table. A lot of systems upgrade, a few new missions, new Quarks, some more launchers, a new armor set, and almost a total rework of the game's balance through difficulty, mechanics, status tuning, and tech nodes.

While that might not look like much, each and every one of those additions and fixes required time to be tuned to their best interest of both us and you all. Bullet Launcher positioning system has slight differences from the accessories system, new missions were crafted with new requirements and methods, enemy mechanics needed to be different and fun, projectile barrier needed to not be annoying but an engaging mechanic that allows us to keep power into ranged playstyle.

One of the most prominent changes and additions were new bullet launchers and energy launchers rework. We needed to make something new, different, and fun to use. We've had sessions talking, voting within our team on which energy launchers we're doing. Someone even wanted a drone to plant itself into the ground at a targeted location and explode itself (we'll keep that idea for a later time) and some of us wanted more utility as we also wanted melee users to be able to use them. These took a long time to work on and we're happy that you were excited to use and praising them.

I'd honestly want to say that we've rebalanced the game two to three times in itself during the whole update cycle, as we've brought out some update ideas into the M.A.S.S. Builder Discord channel and our players expressed concern on how it'll turn out. Weight was the first one, we didn't think to remove them at first, but after hearing about it in feedback, we yielded.

The second was when we introduced Quantum Break nodes that had chance of activations and ranges of benefits, they weren't popular and we had some heated discussions with us saying we wanted some kind of fun and weird nodes alongside a few players and others wanting a certain consistency for speedrunning and min-maxing purposes. We then took another look at all our rebalancing and changed them one more time, separating most chance from nodes into another node in itself. And in parallel to that, we were required to test them extensively alongside Quark status changes. Those were the months with nothing but testing day in day out, changing numbers, and more testings. But they were not enough, as you can see that we've done a huge balance update in 0.8.5. Thank you for all the input and feedback.



That should be all for 0.8.x. We've gone on longer than we have expected now. We hope you all have fun, and again, thank you for your support throughout our second year. We hope to continue to fulfill wants and desires of a mecha game, your feedback is always appreciated as it had helped us in our journey for as long as we remember. Next week, we'll talk about what's coming in 0.9.0 as most of you are surely wondering, what is the first step towards our multiplayer update.

Discord: discord.gg/quS7E46
Feedback Hub: {LINK REMOVED}bit.ly/3wpWofe

Hotfix 0.8.x

• Fixed a bug that causes Vanguard parts to drop instead of Axial Core parts.
  
• Fixed a bug that causes some status on some architect nodes to be counted as durability.
  
• Fixed a bug that says you're in Chapter 2 when instead you're in Chapter 3.
  
• Fixed some typo.
  
• Fixed Accelerated Walkers not providing flat Acceleration.
  
• Fixed not being able to lock onto some enemies.
  
• Fixed some images not showing properly.
  
• Fixed new warheads not dropping and showed as "none."
  
• Darkened Icy Investigations ground texture by a little bit.
  
• Tuned Icy Investigations ground texture. It should not flicker or flicker less now, we're still monitoring it.
  
• Increased the item drops highlight by a little bit.
  
• Fixed a bug that causes you to jut upwards while trying to boost forward or go forward when you try to boost back.
  
• Added "can equip +1 Launchers" to a lower tier node so players can equip 4 launchers and have more fun with launcher customization and photography.
  
• Fixed lightings and shaders on new missions, it won't brighten / darken overboard now
  
• Fixed decals scaling in photograph mode
  
• Fixed not displaying shielded effects when taking hits
  
• Changed some drops area to help with the falling into water problem
  
• Optimized the game some more

Known and pending fixes

• The recurring stop shooting bug should be gone now, but also on monitoring
  
• Texture flickering in the game, we tried fixing it but we're monitoring
  
• Your units shown still after the cutscenes, should have been gone now

Once again, happy new year everyone! We're starting the year with the 0.8.0 update! Here are all the patch notes for the major update!

IMPORTANT NOTICE: Upon entering the game, it might show you empty profile. PRESS THE PROFILE BUTTON AND SELECT YOUR OLD PROFILE.
IMPORTANT NOTICE 2: While a translation is there, some changes we've made to the game after the translations are done aren't translated properly yet and there'll be some english mix into the menu/nodes even when selected as other languages.

Improvements and Additions

• Added new armor set "Axial Core" and its variants
  The new armor set Axial Core is finally here! As mentioned before, Axial Core is a "frame fitting" armor set, The armor set comes in blocky, curvy, and edgy (not that kind of edgy mind you) variants, and they're mostly flat layers that aims to be a base for accessories enthusiast and also pieces of armor that could represent those who wanted tight or skinny M.A.S.S. Units.
  
  
  
• Added 35 new accessories
  We've added a lot of new accessories, as promised that we'll be adding more and more of them from now on. Accessories added into the game in 0.8.0 will represent those that haven't been made by us, but were recreated using a lot of other accessories mishmash together by our players in 0.7.x These are things like organic parts, muscles, capes, and much more. We're also adding more primitive shapes as requested by some players (triangles where?) and we hope these 35 new accessories will serve well for their creativities.
  
  
  
• Added 2 new Bullet Launchers
  SALVO: A 24 shot rapid fire that can shift between a fan spread in front of the M.A.S.S. unit or a full focus aimed fire in the aiming mode.
  
  
  CLUSTER: 2 Pods that break down into 20 more missiles each (totaling 40 missiles) that rains down around the M.A.S.S unit.
  
  
  
• Added 3 new Energy Launchers and reworked 1
  ECHO: Rework of the old Snipe EL, ECHO has large amount of ammo stock and will automatically fire alongside your attacks.
  
  
  BEAM: A single drone that fires concentrated, powerful stream of energy while locking the player in place.
  
  
  SLASH: Mid-ranged, low ammo, quick action launcher that instantly attacks at an arc in front of the M.A.S.S. unit on command.
  
  
  PHOTON: An extremely fast wide-area laser shower that damages anything in its range, can only be used when its ammo is full.
  
  
  
• Added new methods to customize Bullet Launchers placement on the M.A.S.S. Unit
  Players will now be able to customize bullet launchers in the ARMOR menu. While the positions where they can be placed a fixed (Shoulders, Chest, Backpack, Hip, and Lower Legs), they can be scaled, rotated, and moved around just like accessories would be. Players can also select how they are shown on the M.A.S.S. unit through their settings.
  
  
  
• Added 2 new Campaign missions
  Chapter 3 of the game has started and we're going deeper on the quest to discover where the Cyclops are hiding at. The new campaign missions will feature new types of Quarks and new methods to progress through the missions, and show you more of how the story unfolds.
  
  
• Added 1 new Hunt mission
  Added a new Hunt mission that will be a bit different than the old Hunt missions. You'll have some surprises checking it out.
  
  
  
• Added Projectile Barriers to some Quarks.
  A "projectile barrier" was added into some Quarks or Quarks Bosses (I repeat, not all of them). These barriers will prevent ranged attacks from hitting Quarks, forcing ranged players to either aim or get into a closer range to perform their attacks and not just hold boost back/sideward alongside left clicking. Projectile barriers act as a flat barrier so you can always get into close range, inside the barrier itself, and fire your shooters/launchers. You can learn more about them in this post: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/956680/view/5610920275896057741
  
  
  
• Added more files into the archives
  New lore bits have been added into the Archives. If you wish to learn what happened to Shelter 13 or updated information about Quarks, check them out. Some information will be unlocked only after later Campaign missions are completed.
  
  
• Added profiles system
  Profiles system has been added into the game. These basically work as a save data for players and will contain all progression and M.A.S.S. units separately. These will allow players to replay the game and relive the story, and more save slots for M.A.S.S. units.
  
  
  
• Added PMC renaming system
  Players can now rename their PMC at the cost of 100,000 credits.
  
  
  
• Added missions' record and statistics
  A feature to help you learn how you fare in M.A.S.S. Builder, or maybe use them to show off and compare progress with your friends, the mission records. These are data collected from the start of the game, separated by difficulties. It shows the times you've completed them, the fastest completion, times played, times failed, times restarted or abort, and in challenges, the waves you've completed as well.
  
  
  
• Added new weapon copy system
  The game now allows you to copy a weapon from one slot and paste it into another slot, allowing quick small changes between weapons without the hurdle of having to recreate, paint, or accessorize them.
  
  
  
• Redesigned NPC M.A.S.S. Units
  NPC M.A.S.S. units have been in their stale, old model for a long time now. We just had the chance to rework them with accessories and you can now see them in their new glorious units.
  
  
  
• Improved a lot of combat and movement mechanics
  The threshold for player's movement when moving between differing heights has been extended. Players will now be able to continue their movement or attacks when there is a small difference in height and not switch to jumping attacks.
  
  In addition to that, some close combat attacks will now pull enemies into better range of attacks. Improved AI algorithm when determining which attack to use
  
  
• Improved lockable areas on Bosses
  Players will now be able to lock-on to more points on a boss' body. This is to make bullet launchers have more points to lock onto and more missiles will be able to home into the boss.

Balance Changes

• Game difficulty and players' status values rebalancing
  We have rebalanced all status values from all tuning nodes. Players will now progress through the game at a smoother rate without having to replay a mission to obtain credits to progress. The gap between each tier of units are now lessened. The difficulty of enemies are more streamlined (especially in Campaign mission 6) making normal enemies easier to kill, elite enemies are the same, and bosses will be slightly tankier with more mechanics that reward players who put in more effort and focus instead of just number scaling. You can learn more about them in this post: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/956680/view/3038233831238503388
  
  Aside from the post, tier 1 and 2 nodes' cost are also lessened by around 20% to help players obtain a full build faster than before. Stage hazards now deal lower percentage health damage in easy and normal difficulty. Shield Regenerations are now increased over the board as well.
  
  
• M.A.S.S. Units can now get staggered
  With how much difficulty adjustments are coming to the update and in preparation for PvP, we deem it necessary to also add in a stagger effect to M.A.S.S. units. Enemy units will be much easier to stagger than player's stagger though so don't you worry. If you're not standing in the middle of a throng of enemies, you won't even feel the change.
  
  
• Reworked lock-on system into a soft-lock system
  We're introducing a soft-lock system. This means that the lock-on will not track their target at 100% speed, but they'll constantly follow along the targets instead. The higher the speed of the target, the more difficult you'll it is for you to hit your target which is more noticeable in auto weapons. Read more on the system and why we changed it here: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/956680/view/3119301148811072579
  
  
  
• Weight effects have been removed from the game
  Weight is now a true flavor stats. It has no effect on any of the status of a M.A.S.S. unit anymore, be it weapon or armor weight,
  
  
• Reworked most of the tech nodes
  We've reworked a lot of tech nodes alongside the rebalancing of players' status values and game difficulty. These reworked ones should provide more variants to build with, be it ranged focused, quantum break, property damages, and more. We'll keep an eye out for balancing in the hotfix week and we'll tune them accordingly. For detailed changes, read it below under Bug Fixes.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a bug that causes some tier 2 nodes to require tier 5 materials
  
• Fixed a bug that causes enemies to be counted as enemies sometimes even when they're dead
  
• Fixed a bug that causes allies to be counter as enemies for targeting purposes
  
• Fixed a bug that causes players to randomly be unable to fire their shooters, we'll continue to track this problem since it's recurring
  
• Fixed a bug that causes shoulders to rotate forward when firing
  
• Fixed a bug that causes some parts' elements to take on colors or glows from nearby elements
  
• Fixed a bug that causes some floorings to prevent players from moving on top of them
  
• Fixed a bug that causes knee/lower legs movement to be weird
  
• Fixed minor bugs that causes some icons to not show up on some accessories, armors, etc.
  
• And a lot of other minor bugs...

Node Changes
Almost all nodes in game have been changed with the newly arrived cooldown system, allowing us to make a lot more variety of nodes, and bringing power to lower-level nodes themselves. A lot of these might seem to come as a nerf seeing how the total amount of increment used to be almost 100% or sometimes going over when fully focused on things like total attack, but they are now scaled back with all the changes coming to Engines, Gears, OS, and all those parts of the tuning.

A lot of nodes have also been changed to compensate for the loss of their randomness and chance. We first added chance to allow a node to be stronger than they can be, but it has been brought to our attention that players would prefer a weaker node if it’s chance of activation is 100% and have fought for it in our feedback hubs. On that note though, there are also people who prefer the chance and luck gameplay style thus we added some power back to luck or make a separate “chance” node of the same kind for them. This should provide both sides some power to play around with.

We expect players to feel a slowly inclined progression instead of a steep staircase like before with all these changes, allowing older missions to still feel challenging even at the best gears available to players, as well as having players who did not grind the chance to succeed in a mission even with underleveled tuning.

• Weight is removed for tuning; consequences fall upon all nodes that uses weight as a factor.
  
• With the new distribution of status and enemy scaling, a ton of nodes has their percentages reduced.
  
• Introduced a lot of new nodes with no tier levels
  
• Introduction of nodes that have different percentages between Close Combat and Ranged attack buffs.
  
• Ranged weapons damage has been adjusted to compensate for all the loss of damage with nodes changes.
  
• Some nodes now have cooldowns to their effects
  
• Most nodes that used to activate from Close Combat can now activate from Ranged as well.
  
• Most nodes that used to activate with a chance are now mostly guaranteed to activate, such as Nanorobotics. Their effects are nerfed, their downsides are higher now, or they now have a cooldown.
  
• We’re showing Tier 6 and 7 changes here as well, but they’re still locked.
  
• Numbers might be a bit different that what’s displayed in game due to last minute changes. We are sorry about that.

For engine, gear, OS, module, and architecture nodes:

• ALL engine, gear, OS, module, and architecture nodes have been rebalanced. Lower tiers have a very much higher floor, and the ceiling has been lowered to about two times as strong as the lowest tiers. While that ceiling drop may sound like a drastic change, in comparison, there is a miniscule amount of change.
  
• Main units now have a very high representation of the status. Subunits have a lower stat increment for tuning.
  
• Due to the removal of weight on armor, all acceleration and fuel burn rate nodes now have a lower merit for using them while all armor nodes, effected as they are, have been changed to adapt to new armor calculations. We used to calculate the status in each node with a “standard” weight but with its removal, every player will have higher acceleration, lower armor, and lower fuel burn rate. These changes will now reflect the “standard” weight we used through these nodes.

The full list of tech node changes is found below, numbers might not match from what is available in-game, and the in-game one is the correct one.

Durability-based

• [Tier 1] Durable Fiber is now two tiers of Under 33% Durability, gains 20~24% defense
  
• [Tier 4] Durable Fiber II is changed to Living Metal: You cannot have more than 33% Durability but you gain Durability per 2.5 seconds when your Durability go lower than that.
  
• [Tier 5] Doomsday Cargo is changed to Crisis-Powered Fiber: When under 33% Durability, gains 20% total attack
  
• [Tier 5] Shieldsformer System II is changed into Outer Layer Shields: You have +100% Defense buff, 50% to remove the buff for 15 seconds when you take damage.
  
• [Tier 6] Shieldsformer System III is changed to Insta-Shieldsformer: When you take damage, gains 5% shields with a 5 second cooldown
  
• [Tier 7] Shockwave Padding is changed to the old Shieldsformer System II.
  
• Defense-based
  
• [Tier 2] Reactive Armor is changed to 35% chance activation and 14~17% Defense Buff for 4 seconds.
  
• [Tier 3] Reactive Armor II is changed into LC Reactive Armor: When you take damage, gains 100% Defense for .5 seconds. Can only trigger once every 3 seconds.
  
• [Tier 5] Reactive Armor III is changed into Dueling Armor: When surrounded by 2 or less enemies, gain +12% Attack and Defense Buff.
  
• [Tier 6] Fortress Configurations II is replaced with Reactive Armor II.
  
• [Tier 6] Shields Enhancer II is changed into Fortress Shielding: When surrounded by 4 or more enemies, gain 40% Shields Regen Buff.
  
• [Tier 7] Fortress Configurations III is now the same as what Fortress Configurations II used to be.
  
• [Tier 7] Shields Enhancer III is now the same as what Shields Enhancer II used to be.

Offense-based

• [Tier 1] Tempo Preserver is changed as the following: On hitting enemy using Close Combat Weapons, gain 7% Close Combat Attack and 12% Defense for 2.5 seconds. Also gain 5% Ranged Attack for 5 seconds.
  
• [Tier 2] Composite Nanorobotics is changed as the following: -100% shields recovery in mission. Gains 1% durability back when hitting an enemy with close combat.
  
• [Tier 3] Pressurized Gears is changed into Uninterrupted Support: On hitting enemy using Close Combat Weapons, gain 35% Ranged Damage for 3 seconds. You don’t have ammo for shooters.
  
• [Tier 4] Void Destabilizer is changed to on killing enemies, gain 10% Close Combat attack buff and 5% Ranged attack buff for 15~20 seconds. 10% chance for effect to activate when hitting a boss.
  
• [Tier 4] Arms S. Battery I is changed into Support Energy Relay: On hitting enemy using Bullet or Energy Launcher, gains 12% Close Combat Attack Buff for 3 seconds, 5% Ranged Attack Buff for 2 seconds.
  
• [Tier 5] Arms S. Battery II is changed into Quickarms Mastery: On end combo attacks, gain 25% Ranged attack buff for 5 seconds. On killing enemies with Ranged Weapons or Launchers, gain 25% Close Combat attack buff for 5 seconds. On hitting Boss level Quarks with Ranged Weapons or Launchers, gain 10% Close Combat Attack Buff for 2.5 seconds.
  
• [Tier 5] Powered Nanorobotics is changed as the following: Shields -50%. Gain 5% Durability on hitting an enemy with Close Combat Weapon. Can trigger once every 5 seconds.
  
• [Tier 6] Pressurized Gears II is changed into Reverberation Shielding: On using bullet launchers, gain 15% increased defense for 2 seconds.
  
• [Tier 6 and 7] Heated Engines has their values changed to the followings: Acceleration +20~30. When hitting enemy with Close Combat Weapon, gains 10% Speed Buff for 2.5 seconds. When hitting enemy with Ranged Weapons, gains 5% Speed Buff for 2.5 seconds. This effect has 5 seconds cooldown.

Ranged-based

• [Tier 2] Pinpoint Reticle I is changed into Overheated Shooters: Gain 25% Ranged Attack Buff for 4 seconds with a 12 second cooldown.
  
• [Tier 3] Pinpoint Reticle II is changed into Dispersing Attachments: On hitting enemy with Bullet or Energy Shooter, deal extra 100% Piercing or Plasma damage according to your weapon. This can trigger once every 3 second.
  
• [Tier 4 and 5] The two types of Binary Monarch and Full Metal Jacket are merged with each other once again. They now also refill ammo stock instead of current ammo.
  
• [Tier 5] Full Metal Jacket is moved down into the same Tier 4 at the same area of Binary Monarch.
  
• [Tier 5] Full Metal Jacket A. Type is changed into Seismic Propulsion: On using Bullet Launcher, release a set of explosives in close proximity, dealing 300% Physical based damage. This effect can trigger every 7 seconds.
  
• [Tier 5] Full Metal Jacket I. Type is changed into Frontal Unloader: On using Bullet Launcher, release a set of explosives in the direction you’re looking at, dealing 500% Piercing based damage. This effect can trigger every 10 seconds.
  
• [Tier 6] Pinpoint Reticle III is now AI Assisted Aim: You have 35% increased ranged attack. On hitting enemies with shooters, remove the effect for 5 seconds.
  
• [Tier 6] Jet Stabilizers is changed into Space Management Systems: Mag.Load and EN.Cap increased by 15%.
  
• [Tier 7] Jet Stabilizers II is changed into Dual Mechanisms: Mag.Reload and En.Recharge increased by 15%.

Accel-based

• [Tier 2] Frame Boosting System S. Type is changed into Frame Boosting System: Fuel Burn Rate +30%, Gains 150% Defense Buff for 1 second on starting Boost with a 3 second cooldown
  
• [Tier 3] Efficient Thrusters II now reduces Fuel Burn Rate by 15%
  
• [Tier 5] Frame Boosting System D. Type is changed into Phantom Gear: When ending Boost, you gain 150% Close Combat Attack Buff for 3.5 seconds and 50% Ranged Attack buff for 2.2 seconds with a 15 second cooldown.
  
• [Tier 6] Accelerated Walkers II is changed into Plated Walkers: Gains 10% Defense Buff while you are running or boosting.
  
• [Tier 5 and 7] Additional Thrusters have their values adjusted to the following: Fuel Burn Rate +15% Acceleration +75~90
  
• [Tier 7] Hybrid Ignition System is changed into Fuel Injectors: On start boosting, refill 100% fuel every second for 3 seconds 20s cooldown

Regen-based

• [Tier 5] Perpetual Generator II is changed into Imperfect Dynamo: Durability -80% Shields Recovery in mission +100%
  
• [Tier 4 and 6] Perpetual Generator has their values adjusted to the following: Gain 2~3% Shields every 2 seconds.
  
• [Tier 7] Fuel Recycler is changed to On-Standby Generators: While having 50% and under Durability, gains 25% increased Shields Regeneration
  
• [Tier 4] Bullet Recollector I is changed into Bullet Recollector Type C.: Refill 20% of Bullet and Energy Shooter’s ammo when defeating an enemy. On hitting Bosses using Bullet or Energy Shooter, 30% chance to refill 20% of Bullet and Energy Shooter’s ammo.
  
• [Tier 5] Bullet Recollector II is changed into Bullet Recollector Type S.: Refill 2% of Bullet and Energy Shooter’s ammo stock when defeating an enemy. On hitting Bosses using Bullet or Energy Shooter, 30% chance to refill 2% of Bullet and Energy Shooter’s ammo stock.

Property Damage-based

• [Tier 3] Power Transference Unit I have its values adjusted to the following: Heat, Freeze, and Shock Damage +300
  
• [Tier 4] Power Transference Unit II is changed into Fluid Cycling Bits: On hitting enemy using Bullet or Energy Shooter, fire another 3 bullet each dealing an extra 50% Heat, Freeze, and Shock damage. This can trigger once every 5 second.
  
• [Tier 5] Power Transference Unit III is changed into Tinkerer’s Blade: Total Attack -35%. On hitting enemy using Close Combat Attack, there is a 25% chance to deal 65% extra Heat, Freeze, or Shock damage.
  
• [Tier 4] Cryo Coated Metals has its values adjusted to the following: When taking damage, you release a freezing pulse for 200% Physical/Freeze based damage. The effect has a 6 second cooldown.
  
• [Tier 5 to 7] Trinity Core has its values adjusted to the following: Duration is 2/2/6. Values goes to 10~11 and 20~25.

Close Combat-based

• [Tier 2] Gathering Storm I has its values adjusted to the following: On combo start, you deal extra 40% Shock Damage, on dual attack, you deal extra 90% Shock Damage, on combo end, you deal extra 150% Shock Damage. Each one has its own 2 second cooldown.
  
• [Tier 4] Gathering Storm II is changed into Fueled Strikes: 50% chance to -5% Fuel per hit. Gain 7% Close Combat Attack Buff and 5% Chance to apply BURN and WEAK status effect for Close Combat Weapons.
  
• [Tier 2] Wildfire Starter I has its values adjusted to the following: On hitting enemy using Close Combat Weapons, you deal an extra 400% Physical/Heat based attack. This effect has a 5 second cooldown.
  
• [Tier 4] Wildfire Starter II is changed to the following: Pressurized Gears: On combo end, you deal an extra 250% Physical based attack in a wide area. Gain 10% Close Combat Attack Buff for 5 seconds.
  
• [Tier 5] Type 3 Arms S. Battery is changed into Ammunition Recycler: On killing enemy with Close Combat Weapon, gains 10% Bullet and Energy Launcher ammo. 15% chance for effect to activate when hitting a boss. This effect has a 5 second cooldown.
  
• [Tier 6 and 7] Type 3 Arms S. Battery is changed into Tremor Impactor: When performing Dual Attacks, gain a 15% Defense Buff for 3 seconds. This effect has a 12~10 second cooldown
  
• [Tier 4] Gravitation Defier I is now changed into Kinetic Canceller: On combo start, you gain 150% increased defense for 0.75 second. 3 seconds cooldown.
  
• [Tier 6] Gravitation Defier III is now changed into Continuous Inertia: On combo start, you gain 5% speed buff for 2 second, on dual attack, you gain 10% speed buff for 2 second, on combo end, you gain 13% speed buff for 2 second. Each one has its own 2 second cooldown.
  
• [Tier 5 and 7] Gravitation Defier II and IV have their values adjusted to the following: Take 10~8% more damage, gain 7% Close Combat Damage Buff, 4% Ranged Damage Buff, and 40~50 Acceleration.
  
• [Tier 6 and 7] Magnetized Weights have their values adjusted to the following: Acceleration -90~80, Power +8~10%, and Armor +10~12%

Guarding-Based

• [Tier 5] Saintess Bulwark had its values adjusted to the following: 35% Close Combat Attack Buff for 4 seconds, 12% Ranged Attack Buff for 5 seconds.
  
• [Tier 4 and 6] Protective Coating II and Flagbearer II are changed into Repulsor Attachment: On initializing guard, release 300~375% Physical damage. 6~5 seconds cooldown.
  
• [Tier 2 and 5] Meteor Shielder had their values adjusted to the following: On lowering guard, gains 10% Speed for 3~4 seconds. +30~40 Acceleration.
  
• [Tier 4] Meteor Shielder II is changed into Captured Entropy: Property damage - 30%, Armor +5% Phys Atk. +15% Pie/Pla +5%
  
• [Tier 3, 6, and 7] Aegis Reinforcements have their values adjusted to the following: Total Atk. -10~6% Defense +10~12%

Quantum Break-Based

• [Tier 4] Energy Collector I is changed into Enhancing Subunit: In any Quantum Break Mode, gains 12% Attack, Defense, and 10% Speed Buff.
  
• [Tier 5] Energy Collector II is changed into Empowered Collector: When hitting Quarks, gain 4% Quantum Break Charge immediately. Has a 2 second cooldown.
  
• [Tier 4] Particle Accelerator I is changed into Accelerating Subunit: In any Quantum Break Mode, gains 17% Speed Buff. Release 200% Phys/Heat wave every 4 second.
  
• [Tier 5] Particle Accelerator II is changed into Break Acceleration: On mission begin and on Quantum Break ends, gain 35% Quantum Break charges immediately. Quantum Break capacity reduced by 60%.
  
• [Tier 4] Amplification Module I is changed into Destructive Subunit: In any Quantum Break Mode, gains 15% Attack Buff. Maximum Potential is reached 33% faster.
  
• [Tier 5] Amplification Module II is changed into Enigmatic Amplifier: While not in Quantum Break, you have -20% Total Attack. While in any Quantum Break Mode, you have +25% Total Attack. There is 1% chance on close combat attack to instantly gain 100% Quantum Break charges.
  
• [Tier 4] Q. Augmented Thrusters is changed into Defensive Subunit: In any Quantum Break Mode, gains 15% Defense and 20% Shields Regen Buff. Quantum Break Duration +5%.
  
• [Tier 5] Q. Augmented Shields is changed to Kinetic Cage: When you take damage, gains 2% Quantum Break Charge.
  
• [Tier 5 and 7] Essence Redistributor is changed to Particle Gatherer: Gains QB Charge by 2% every 2~1.5 seconds.
  
• [Tier 5 and 7] Momentum Spiker have their values adjusted to the following: When Quantum Break ends, gain 35% Close Combat Attack buff and 15% Ranged Attack buff for 6~8 seconds.
  
• [Tier 4 and 6] Momentum Spiker is changed to Quantum Spender: You have 12~14% increased Physical atk. When attacking, 20% chance to spend 5~4% Quantum Break charges.