Hello... and welcome back to the weekly WIP of M.A.S.S. Builder! We're resuming this sequence of weekly tidbits and sneak peeks for the upcoming version, starting small from one of the scenes from a new mission... looking like somewhat of a cargo hold? But whose or where is it and what kind of mechanics you will find there?... you'll need to find out in the story, which is something we'll focus on in the coming 0.10.0 version!



There are more ammunitions stocked up this time and we'll keep you interested in the coming weeks! Stay tuned!

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

Hello everyone, welcome back to another "What's Next" post of the year, albeit only the second one as we've only made two major updates this year. Again, we'd like to add a disclaimer that this post won't go into details of what we'll be doing for the next coming update, update 0.10.0 (no it's not 1.0.0 and we'll continue on this trend towards 0.11.0 and 0.12.0 and so on). Let's start shall we?

First things first, we must announce that we will not be working on Multiplayer PVP as we'd promised a year ago. This is due to all the problems and concerns with multiplayer that arose during 0.9.0 alpha test of multiplayer. We've been collecting a lot of data and planning accordingly on its improvement, and that's what we'll be working on in 0.10.0 in the features and systems department.

What we can say right now is:
1. The first and foremost priority is to further develop multiplayer mode, mainly on matchmaking features (we're still in consideration whether to only matchmake people with a ping threshold of under a number).
2. A reconnection feature must and will be added into the game as it is a core feature for multiplayer that we didn't have enough time to complete in alpha phase.
3. More information of players in the lobby, more QoL issues in the feature.

PVP will be discussed and worked on at a later update, we are sorry about this, but the feature won't be fun if we released it alongside the current multiplayer issues, and fun is our first priority in the game.



And since we'll be working to further complete multiplayer mode, we'll have the others on the team work to complete more story contents as a focus. Why story missions? Because we wanted to finally complete one of the game's goals, a total of 26 story mission. We have been thinking hard about this and have come to a conclusion that we are now at a place that we should focus to complete each feature one by one, and story missions are something we can work alongside the multiplayer upgrade plans. More story missions also mean that we can further unlock nodes of the highest tiers (just like how we unlocked t6 in 0.9.0) sooner than later. We expect to complete around 4 story missions in total, maybe more in 0.10.0

And lastly, we'll be continuing other content works that we've always been doing, accessories, more poses, and more weapon parts will still be coming to the game in 0.10.0 Balance changes will happen as well, but it won't be drastic as in 0.9.0 as we think the current game is in an alright state. To clarify on this, we're thinking of making EASY MODE having players almost immortal, NORMAL being extremely clearable with enemies being slow, hard and very hard requiring a fully thought-out method of play and enemies challenging the players' own skills.

And no, we don't think that everyone should be able to complete VERY HARD if they don't utilize everything they have. We won't balance the game around any self-imposed challenges. We will balance the game with normal in mind for everyone, cosplay builds and everything, and players should not have a hard time if they keep upgrading their unit through the game. We will balance things according to the degree of fun we feel when piloting our M.A.S.S. units in NORMAL difficulty.
Again, thank you for sticking with us and M.A.S.S. Builder, see you next week.
Discord: discord.gg/quS7E46
Feedback Hub: {LINK REMOVED}bit.ly/3wpWofe

Hello everyone, this is Vermillion Digital team, once again having our postmortem or, in our words, the Afterwords of major updates. We'd first like to thank you to everyone still sticking with us through all these long months of drought where we can only show you how we're progressing with the updates we've worked on. Our aim is still true to make this a game where people can play with whatever they wanted in the way they wanted, and while 0.9.0 doesn't provide much customization options, we're still glad you're mostly positive on the additions. We hope we'll be able to continue working towards our goal along with all of you!

Now! Let's us use this time to explain how and why it took... almost 10 months to work on 0.9.0. We might have mentioned this before but as 0.9.0 was the update we worked on Multiplayer; the development process was us basically rewriting 50% of the whole game. Before this time, M.A.S.S. Builder was an "offline only game" where every part, every piece of information was calculated and stored within a player's own PC. They could take that save anywhere, played it offline, and modify things however they like. We still wanted players to be able to do that, but now there's a catch where multiplayers must not be affected by anyone's modification of the game.

This made us scoured through every line of code in the game to see if it can be used maliciously. Doing so, we've discovered a lot of work that can be optimized, works that our past inexperienced selves have found to be worthy before looks to be something that hinders optimization nowadays, and we just cannot allow ourselves to overlook them. Thus began the optimization. The first few months after we started working on 0.9.0 are all about rewriting codes, optimizing them, merging some parts together, and planning we would structure multiplayer codes alongside every part of the game we did in the past.

But hey! Doing so allowed us to perform a much-needed upgrade to the game. Optimizations we never thought we could do, new systems in place such as the boosting curve, new features and functions that were created to further support tech nodes creation, and much more to come (just like that combo attack curve that faced a last-minute cut, we'll finish it in the near future we promise).

Now, towards the main feature of 0.9.0 itself, multiplayer. We first wanted to just release a non-playable showroom with no endpoint in playing just for players to show off their units. However, with the rewriting of codes taking that long and speculated to take many more months, we discussed among ourselves if it would be worth the wait to just have a mode like that, and decided it was not. We assigned one of our six to start working on more aspects towards multiplayer immediately, and the best solution was to create a co-op mission that we might use to fully test out our features.

Well, the results are as expected, a buggy mess that took months to finish, an unoptimized mode of play, but at least, a playable multiplayer in the most basic sense. The problems stemmed from using P2P networking, but as we deemed this is the best method for us as an indie developer, it required much more countermeasures in place to make it a good system. Currently, players are mostly being kicked out of a session left and right, mostly because we did not have any locks or thresholds on pings, thus players from regions across the world can still connect to each other with extremely high ping, resulting in the network being faulty enough to disconnect players from each other, kicking people into the lobby itself. Looking at every bug, every complaint, every suggestion, and every discussion made by you, we know this is a long road to walk towards and that it cannot be done within a few weeks to fix for sure, so we'll leave 0.9.1. in the state it is. We're sorry how our anticipated update turned out to be, but we'll strive to make it better by the next major update. There will be systems to better match players into each other, there'll be more features in the multiplayer system, there will be many things coming to our game.

On one final note, we know that game balance is something that's controversial in a game like this where we wanted to have a fun game where anyone could just take any build to play in any mission. We still stand by that mission of ours and will be turning easy and normal mode difficulty into some sort of a story mode where it's almost impossible to fail. We'll keep hard and very hard where it's at that players making a mistake can cost a life immediately. Basically, easy and normal will be easier, hard and very hard must achieve what they set out to be, an aspiring content where one can aim for. Everyone must be able to have fun in some kind of way. That's what our game will be.

Next week, we'll talk about what's coming next in 0.10.0. Please have fun with what 0.9.1 can provide for now and as always, feel free to send in your suggestions and discuss the game with us through the official discord channel.

- Vermillion Digital Team

Well! We've started the year off with version 0.8.0 and we've finally done working on version 0.9.0 at the end of the year and now, we're ready to release the long-awaited update! Patch notes can be found here:

https://steamcommunity.com/games/956680/announcements/detail/5379014706390139220

As always, we'll monitor for any bugs and changes required for a week or two. If the game is stable enough for players to have fun, we'll start 0.10.0 development but for now, please enjoy the newly updated M.A.S.S. Builder with new additions of everything including the co-op multiplayer missions!



Known Issue:

• Lots of disconnections in Multiplayer is expected as we have no ping throttling to matchmake players with low pings to each other yet, thank you for helping us test the feature.

Changes in 0.9.1:

• Flagbearer, AI Assisted Aim, and few more nodes that aren't working now works properly.
  
• Removed the misplaced Shields Enhancer passive stat gain.
  
• The shielded boss in Very Hard mode has... 10% of its intended stamina so it always fell down, we fixed that.
  
• Added a new respawn button so players won't accidentally click on abort mission button.
  
• Easy AND normal is now easier for people who just want to progress the story or just want to play a cosplay build or any build they wanted with no worries.
  
• Corrected a few sounds and particles VFX, they should now perform better.
  
• Adjusted the weak points on some bosses to make it easier to hit when downed.
  
• Binary Monarch now has a downside of -33% instead of -50%, we're still monitoring how the game settles and will work on it in the coming days.
  
• Volatile Void Reactive Weapon now has 130% damage and 1 second cooldown.
  
• Fixed Mission count, it should now not be /00.
  
• Fixed QB freezing players making them unable to do anything if players durability reaches 0 while charging up.
  
• Fixed drones not showing proper alignment in photography mode.
  
• Fixed a bug that causes enemies to not have their HP multiplied properly in co-op mission 20
  
• Fixed Color settings in multiplayer, players should be able to see accurate colors now. Lens flare are still being monitored but the update should help in most cases.
  
• Reduced camera-shake from some enemies' attacks.
  
• Optimized multiplayer missions desync. Projectiles will be much smoother than before.
  
• The boss in co-op mission 3 will now drop its items at the center of the stage instead.
  
• Small typos here and there.
  
• Some sorting does not logically follow rules.

Hello everyone! We're excited to announce that we're extremely near the update of version 0.9.0 and there's only a few things left to be polished before it's ready. So before everything happens, we'd like to round up everything that is going to change in the new version as well as provide all the balance changes coming in the new version so you can think ahead.

Specific date and time of the update will be announced later, stay tuned!

Weak Point System
To add more depth into boss fights of M.A.S.S. Builder, we've added certain "Weak Points" to every boss enemy into the game. Weak points are special places located on a boss' body that has a higher damage multiplier. Each boss will have different weak points, but they all are noticeable at a glance, and should allow players to have a good "burst" moment instead of just simply reducing a boss' HP to 0 at a constant rate. Now before anyone mentions how difficult it will be for melee players to hit these weak points in comparison to ranged players, we would like to tell you about the following.
You can read more about it in: https://steamcommunity.com/games/956680/announcements/detail/3398556047602781789

Tier 6 nodes
Tier 6 nodes are now unlocked. Players will be able to obtain the materials required for their research from challenge mode missions only.

New Base Weapon Parts
In 0.9.0. simple parts or "base" parts of every ranged weapon type (Bullet Shooter, Energy Shooter, Bullet Launcher, Energy Launcher) will be making its way into the game. Every firing method will be receiving a set of similar looking parts so players can feel free to choose which base part they wanted to accessorize and which firing method they'll use.
https://steamcommunity.com/games/956680/announcements/detail/3400806564133453599

New Accessories
We've added around 30 new accessory parts themed around Quarks, Rings, Base weapons, and many more into the game. Have a good time using them to further customize your M.A.S.S. unit! We'll keep an eye on more of your requests and if we have the time to work on them, we'll select some and add them into the game in the next update!
https://steamcommunity.com/games/956680/announcements/detail/3389539321921025744
https://steamcommunity.com/games/956680/announcements/detail/3378282226098745216

New Missions
We've added 2 new story missions bringing it to 17 out of the planned 26 now. Plans might change and we might end up with more story missions, but this is the current plan. We've also added 1 new HUNT mission into the game.
https://steamcommunity.com/games/956680/announcements/detail/3409814398501901581

New Poses in Photograph Mode
There are a few new poses in Photograph Mode for players to enjoy their creations.
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/956680/view/3192499877882836524

Co-op MULTIPLAYER is here!
After grueling months of wait, we've finally added multiplayer into M.A.S.S. Builder in the form of Co-op missions! This is the first phase of many, and we admit that it's more than rough around the edges, but we'd like you to test it out among your friends (or enemies). Accompanying co-op will be 3 missions with the difficulty of around tier 5 nodes based on normal missions and challenge missions. These missions won't have much requirement of players yet and extremely simple as an alpha test mission.

We hope to add more in the future, but we'd like these 3 to be the first experience of you players. We would appreciate if you can provide feedback on these missions to us so we can improve them in the future as well as create new ones with more fun and mechanics (that would truly require you to bring at least one more player alongside to complete the requirements.)
https://steamcommunity.com/games/956680/announcements/detail/5379014706379584819

• There are now explanations for each form of Quantum Break in the HELP menu.
  
• Improved boosting mechanics. Players will now experience a large speed boost after continually boosting for a few seconds to help travel between areas in larger missions.
  
• Created a curve that made combo attacks hit faster and faster if you continue the combo. Players who spec into more armor and able to withstand attacks from enemies will be dishing out more damage through this system. Due to a critical bug found in the final phases of development, we've decided to not implement the speed ramping for combo attacks in version 0.9.0. It should be done in version 0.10.0 instead. We are sorry to disappoint all melee players, but we've adjusted base attack damage to compensate for the speed loss.
  
• Further optimized the game's graphics and CPU usage, especially with Clusters bullet launcher.
  
• Camera adjustments when you're around large enemies, zooming out a bit to show the extravaganza of combat.
  
• Added unique effects for existing techs that adds extra damage to anything.
  
• Changed various tech node icons to better match their abilities.
  
• You can now sort through the tuning nodes alphabetically.
  
• You can now skip the unlock animation when unlocking new nodes or new blueprints.

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/956680/view/3352387161691149819

0.9.0 Balance update
Problem: While close combat feels much better and regarded by most as a great playstyle, its performance was still lower than we wanted. Boss enemies does not provide enough time for players to freely attack them for a full combo or two. Melee players felt they need to use certain methods to be effective in playing, such as dash attacks spamming. Quantum Break still feels slightly off. Defensive nodes still overlooked.

Solution: Adjust their attack patterns and vulnerable windows. Raise melee damage and speed in total, even higher in later combos to compensate for their downtime (as mentioned before in gameplay speed adjustments). This has not been implemented into the game as of version 0.9.0. Only the damage and normal speed increment were applied but not combo ramping. Write more codes to allow the modification of shield recharge and quantum break activation time through nodes.

Bosses Changes

• Bosses will have a longer wind-up time before some attacks, such as the first boss' ground stomp, the multi-headed runner boss jump attack.
  
• Bosses will now "fall" for a longer period of time to create a window for combo attacks to chain until the end. These windows of attack should also benefit slow firing weapons such as detonator and single shot weapons more.
  
• Bosses will recover their stamina from melee attacks less.

Dash Attacks

• Reduced dash attacks' damage multiplier by around 20%. We must first explain that every attack has its own damage multiplier which might be 100%, 110%, 120%, or 90%. This change meant that Dash Attacks has 20% less than before and less than normal attacks, not that it usually is stronger than normal attacks and we're lowering it.
  
• Dash attacks now has a cooldown of 0.4 seconds. Normal players won't feel any difference, but dash attack spammers and macro users will not be able to utilize it to the same power as before. While changing this might not seem enough to deter players from using it, please know that we don't want that kind of playstyle to die out completely as we wanted everyone to play however, they wanted and still have it as a possible playstyle.

Others

• Certain defense nodes now have a passive increment to armor in addition to triggered defense increase.
  
• There are now nodes that allow faster shield recharges and quantum break activation. We just had some time to code them in so now there's more choice of nodes to help with your playstyle.
  
• We have currently disabled most special melee "opener" attacks (rise, leap, etc.). This may cause some problems and we'll return with it later when we find a good solution to how it will work in tandem with normal attacks.

Problem: Quantum Break doesn't synergize well with "end combo" tech nodes. It also causes some frustration and exploits to occur in the way of time plus attacks both burning away Quantum Break duration and Quantum Break still doesn't feel like "power overwhelming" but just a sustained power up.
Solution: Change how Quantum Break duration works with time and attack. Make Quantum Break hits count as "end combo."

• Every 5th hit counts as "end combo" triggering all "end combo" effects.
  
• Increased the power provided by entering into Quantum Break.
  
• Increased Quantum Break max capacity and consumption per second, this means attacks in Quantum Break will use much less Quantum charge, but now depletes over time in around 8 seconds.
  
• With the above change, Enhanced mode will have around 50% more duration than other modes, but less effective.
  
• Lowered the baseline number of attacks required to enter Quantum Break. This means that even with no investment, players will be able to use Quantum Break around 20% much faster.
  
• Added nodes that immediately starts and end Quantum Break with extremely strong effects. This turns QB into an "oh shit" button for players that wishes to utilize them a certain way. Read below on the specific node changes to learn more.

https://steamcommunity.com/games/956680/announcements/detail/3358010319615690560

Problem: Property Damages have either been too strong or too weak to be useful. In some cases, players want to thematically use one property for their units, but advantages/disadvantages prevent them from doing so.

Solution: Totally remove the min-maxing element out of property 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. Raise the power of specific property damage nodes.

• Every enemy now has almost the same property damage resistance with every property damage. Property weaknesses will only result in around 10% more damage when correct element is used 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 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.
  
• BURN now lasts 3 seconds at baseline and now deals 50% of the proc damage per second.
  
• WEAK now lasts 3 seconds at baseline and now reduce 75% of enemy's defense.
  
• No changes on FREEZE.
  
• M.A.S.S. type enemies are not affected by any status effects, but their property damage resistance is now lower than Quarks

https://steamcommunity.com/games/956680/announcements/detail/3108052931132220440

Specific Node Changes
Problem: In the engine and OS tree, nodes in the same line provides an almost identical playstyle, just to the more extremities. This disabled players from tuning a unit that suits their desired playstyle (such as a balance of Power + Acceleration in engine tree).

Solution: Adjust Engine, Gear, OS, Module nodes' numbers to either be more "in-between" or "true extremities."

• Loaded Engine line provides more ACCELERATION but lower DURABILITY and ARMOR.
  
• Mod. Alloy Engine line provides more ACCELERATION but lower POWER, MAGAZINE LOAD, and ENERGY CAP
  
• Heat Turbines and Power Redirector now provides 30 ACCELERATION instead of 35 ACCELERATION.
  
• Slayer OS line provides more SHIELDS and SHIELDS REGEN but lower ACCURACY, MAGAZINE RELOAD, and ENERGY RECHARGE.
  
• CELLBURN OS line provides more ACCURACY but lower SHIELDS and SHIELDS REGEN.
  
• All RAW attack numbers are lowered, but enemy resistances are lowered to match as well. This is to allow nodes that increase raw stats to not reach cap and lose value. Results are slight overall increment in attack power.
  
• In addition to the problem above, we've also removed POWER and ACCURACY from Architecture nodes and add them straight into PHYSICAL, PIERCING, and PLASMA damage so the game provides a more accurate number for players to see. We've also added some other complimentary stats to those that have power and accuracy removed.

Problem: Some tech nodes are overperforming (slotted in almost every build of the archetype) or underperforming (not even considered for usage).

Solution: Perform slight adjustments for overperforming nodes to bring them in line with other tech nodes. Perform large adjustments for underperforming nodes to get them to contest tech slots with other nodes. Change a node that found zero use into something else entirely. Tier 6 and 7 node changes are mostly undocumented but follow the same rules.

• For ease of usage with Living Metal, Durable Fiber I and II and Crisis-Powered Fiber now works under 40% Durability instead. Their percentages are decreased to balance the numbers out.
  
• Forceful Tinkering both types had their negatives raised by 5% to balance the power it had brought to the table on every build.
  
• Shieldsformer System found low usage with players due to how shields regeneration works and players not feeling the node's power itself. Shieldsformer System and Insta-Shieldsformer now has added functionality of reducing time before shields start regenerating (yes, we just had time to code that functionality in).
  
• Reactive Armor I, and Reactive Armor II now provides a 5% more armor, but lower defense buff on activation.
  
• LC Reactive Armor now provides 1 second of 50% increased defense instead of 0.75 seconds and 100% increased defense. Its cooldown is now 5 seconds.
  
• Impact Converter I and II (Tier 6) is slightly updated to have cooldowns but provides more recovery.
  
• Outer Layer Shields had their percentages lowered to 50% while deactivation chance is lowered to 35%. This should allow OLS to still tank consecutive heavy hits.
  
• Perpetual Generator I had its numbers changed to 5% Shields every 5 seconds instead of 2% every 2 seconds.
  
• Perpetual Generator II is now Rapid-Regenerating Shields, it now provides -50% Shields Recovery but also reduced time before shields start regenerating by 50%.
  
• Dueling Armor had its functionality changed to a simple defensive tech. It now provides 8% Armor and 12% reduced time before shields start regenerating.
  
• Shields Re-Router now has 12% reduced time before shields start regenerating. Its in-combat shields regeneration is changed to Shields Recovery stat instead.
  
  
• Phantom Gear had its cooldown changed from 11 seconds to 12 seconds.
  
• Additional Thrusters FUEL BURN RATE from 15% to 150 + 5% instead. It also now has an EX-version that can stack.
  
• Accelerated Walkers DURABILITY changed to -7% instead of -10%, but now has an additional -12% shields. It also now has an EX-version that can stack.
  
• Afterburners damage is raised to 65% with a 1 second cooldown.
  
• Frame Boosting System now has +200 and +10% Fuel Burn Rate instead of +30%
  
  
• Binary Monarch and Full Metal Jacket is changed to only provides ammo benefits with how prevalent they are on ranged builds (one node provides too much power) while other ammo regain nodes are mostly unused. Both of their downsides are also changed to negative magazine reload/energy recharge instead of taking more damage or lower accelerations. This should allow players to still feel their respective weapons' damage while having a small downside to unlimited ammo. Their numbers are also changed slightly.
  
• AI. Assisted Aim description is changed to better reflect what it does. It now reads "You gain a +35% increased PIERCING and PLASMA damage buff. Deactivate the buff for 5 seconds after hitting any enemy with any shooters."
  
• Micro Ammunitions-Factory description is changed to better reflect what it does. It now reads "Every 5 seconds refill all Shooters ammo stock. Maximum Durability and Shields -85%."
  
• Seismic Propulsion I and II now provides 400%/450% damage with a 5 second cooldown instead of 300%/350% with a 7/5 second cooldown. This should bring it to the same power as other nodes of similar usage.
  
• Overheated Shooters had its numbers lowered to 20% instead of 25%.
  
• Uninterrupted Support now provides flat increment alongside percentages. It also provides additional EN Recharge and MAG Reload.
  
  
• Uninterrupted Support now provides +30% increased raw stats instead of in-mission buffs. It now also provides straight +600 raw PIERCING and PLASMA damage so those who're playing with main units that doesn't provide enough ranged damage stats can still reap the benefit of this tech.
  
• Powered Nanorobotics now has a 3 second cooldown instead of 5 seconds.
  
• Heated Engines changed to provide RAW Acceleration stats and a speed buff that lasts 4 seconds every 8 seconds (so total downtime of 4 seconds) for the ease of use.
  
• Type 2 Arms S. Batteries are changed to Kinetic Reversal, a node that provides increased damage for a brief period when taking any damage, no chances involved. On that note, Type 2 Arms S. Battery is not removed but moved into the Close combat tree on the right side instead.
  
  
• Tinkerer's Blade now has a 0.8 second cooldown. Its damage is increased to compensate and now only has a downside on its PHYSICAL damage part instead of TOTAL damage This alongside the dash attack cooldown increase should bring it to acceptable levels.
  
• Alt. Power Transference Unit(s) had their numbers increased to 18% and 22%.
  
• All transference unit now provides +4% additional respective damage.
  
• Blaze Arms Enhancer now provides +75% Burn damage instead of +60% Burn damage.
  
• Melting Chemicals is changed to +35% Burn damage with +35% Duration instead.
  
• Both Effective Conductive Materials now also provides +200 all property damage in addition to its duration increment. They can stack.
  
• Suncaller and Stormwielder now has a FREEZE variant and have replaced where Optics, Wirings, and Paddings used to be (tier 6 property damages nodes). Introduced two new nodes to replace where Suncaller and Stormwielder used to be. Please recheck your tuning before playing in any missions.
  
  
• Forceful Tinkering, Shields Enhancer, Gravitation Defier(s), Fueled Strikes, Aegis Reinforcements, Quantum Spender status buffs changed to be reflected in the tuning page (instead of total attack, physical, piercing, or plasma buffs, you now get all or specific status increase/decrease). This makes all of them stackable between tiers, but now has a soft cap with status.
  
• To replace the nodes where Stormwielder and Suncaller used to be, we moved Type 2 Arms. S. Battery there as well as a new node called Airblast Trigger which basically halves your damage but makes you attack twice.
  
• Fueled Strikes now has +50 Fuel Burn Rate. Its fuel removal now has a 1 second cooldown and will now only remove 5% fuel. It now has +10% Physical attack with 10% more chance to burn and weak instead.
  
• Gravitation Defier I and II now provides +80/80 ACCELERATION, ARMOR -200/-200 and -12%/-12%, gain 17%/19% Physical Damage, and 8%/9% Piercing and Plasma Damage. This is a fix to our knee-jerk reaction that over buffed it in our last hotfixes of 0.8.0.
  
• Continuous Inertia has its percentages buffed by 5% each stage.
  
• Void-Reactive Weapon damage is lowered to 1000% instead of 2000% and a 3 second cooldown instead of 1.
  
• Void-Reactive Armor is changed to Volatile VRW, it is basically a higher chance, lower damage version of Void-Reactive Weapon and you can use the two of them together.
  
• Void Converter (T7) is changed to Void-Reactive Weapon II.
  
  
• Quantum Mechanics Research and Energy Collector has been changed to a jack of all QB node.
  
• Quantum Acceleration Research and Particle Accelerator has been changed to be a Quantum Break activation time reduction node. It also provides additional ACCELERATION.
  
• Quantum Control Research and Amplification Module has been changed to be nodes that cut down charge consumption of attacks in Quantum Break and also increase damage ramping.
  
• Quantum Coating Research and Q. Stabilizing Fields has its numbers changed. With the new base QB duration changes, these nodes are extremely effective in lengthening QB duration.

Designed 4 new tech nodes that will immediately activate Quantum Break on the press of a button, each functioning differently. Please check their descriptions in-game.

• Energy Collector I has been changed to Immediate Enhancement: Instant QB in trade of duration
  
• Particle Accelerator I has been changed to Quantum Empowerment: Instant powerup for 20 seconds
  
• Amplification Module I has been changed to Quantum Kelvinizer: Instant freeze bomb
  
• Q. Augmented Rechargers has been changed to Quantum Rejuvenator: Instant max shields
  
  
• Momentum Spiker has its numbers changed to be higher buff with a lower duration.
  
• Accelerating Subunit now provides -25% Quantum Break activation time instead of releasing heat waves (as with shields regen time, we just had time to code this functionality into the game).
  
• Kinetic Cage had its numbers changed to gain 5% Quantum Break charges on being hit with a 3 second cooldown. It now also has a 2% chance to fill 100% Quantum charges immediately on taking damage and a flat 5% increased ARMOR.
  
• Enigmatic Amplifier had its downsides removed but is also less effective.
  
• Quantum Spender I is changed to a non-extreme version with a lower negative yet retaining their positive sides.
  
• Quantum Spender II is changed to the extreme version of Quantum Spender (name change into Quantum Spender EX). Its numbers are now much higher on both ends.
  
• Quantum Coating Research had its duration increased from 20% to 25% but removed all over time consumption reduction.
  
• Sky Disperser I and II is changed to a node that releases heat waves like Accelerating Subunit used to be. We have saw how players used it during its bugged state and decided to keep it at almost the same amount of power (lowering damage to 150% instead of 200%) but making it trigger every second just like it did before. This should not be too powerful as it takes a node slot in conjunction with the much lower QB duration.
  
• Essence Redistributor now has opposite effect, making attacks consume more but less over time due to the changes making time much more significant.
  
• A few changes here and there for ramping damage nodes as QB duration is drastically reduced.

General ranged playstyle changes.
With the introduction of new launchers in 0.8.0, ranged powers were not adjusted to a satisfactory level in terms of overpowering other types. We're doing it here in 0.9.0

• Slightly lower BEAM and SLASH energy launcher damage per hit and its stagger damage. It should not deplete enemies' stamina or HP in an instant now.
  
• Slightly increase PHOTON energy launcher damage per hit.
  
• Lowered Auto Energy shooter min attack speed but retain the same maximum. Players will need to invest more into acceleration to achieve the speed they had before.
  
• Adjusted the magazine load, energy cap, and energy recharge formulas for some weapons. Players are now required to invest more into these stats to achieve the same level of power they used to have. We've also adjusted a lot of nodes focusing on these statuses as well so those who are investing before will feel the same.
  
• Increased ARMOR values on most nodes with ARMOR, while also slightly increasing enemies attack power at later stages of the game and higher difficulties.
  
• As newer players are being suggested by min-maxing players about the "optimal way to play the game" too much to our liking, we've decided to lower the recharge rate of EN weapons as a whole while they're not active. Players won't feel forced to bring in more than one EN shooter to optimally play the game now. Combined with the change to EN Recharge stats, we feel that this should bring it more in line with other weapons.

Other changes

• Redline Battlefront's boss will now start firing at wave 3 onwards instead of wave 10.
  
• Gates of Ascension bosses have their status adjusted accordingly to accommodate players with higher tier equipment.
  
• Void Convergence enemies' start out a little stronger than before.
  
• More dialogues have been added into the game to better explain the world and events.
  
• Changed some dialogues and texts per request of players to help improve the game.

Bug Fixes

• Some Quarks in Crater Crashers is dealing less than intended damage. Be more careful of explosions now.
  
• Alpha Assaulter now actually has correct values (FINALLY!).
  
• Uninterrupted Support now works for both bullet and energy launcher properly. The description now highlights the detrimental part of the subunit.
  
• Weight is now a true flavor stat with no relation to other stats value.
  
• Fixed a lot of nodes description to reflect how they only work in mission and not to raw status.
  
• Afterburners cooldown was non-existence, it now works properly.
  
• Fixed Photography mode lens flare not appearing problem.
  
• Fixed the sound spike of the worm boss.
  
• Other minor bug fixes.

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Hello everyone, today's a short preview of the coming multiplayer missions you'll get to try your hands on with your friends (or enemies, we don't judge). As we've mentioned months before, we've decided to add co-op missions into this update as it took a long time and came out with three of them.



But before getting into any of them, we'd like to let you know the missions we're showing is mostly simple as their purpose is testing out multiplayer in its alpha version. If it works well, we will expand further on the ideas and feedbacks from these and make better in the future.



Now, let's take a look at the previews! We've got a mission that's like a simple single player mission, this time with other players.



Then there's the other two missions where we tried to simulate challenges into co-op settings. It'll still follow normal missions' ruleset, but we think it'll be fun to fight against either waves of enemies... or a really strong boss fight with your friends.



Discord: discord.gg/quS7E46
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Hello and welcome to another WIP update, this week, introducing a new system we've been planning to implement for a good while, the Weak Point System. You might've seen us mention it in the AMA when in reality, we've been working on it long before that.



The weak point system is a just like its name, a system where players can attack some parts of a boss level Quark to dish out a ton more damage onto them. It is designed to reward players who are able to utilize, increases depth of combat against bosses, and raises the skill ceiling. They won't be shown until you finally score a hit onto the weak point, and their notifications will only show for a few seconds. Now we know there are concerns with how easy they can be targeted by ranged builds while not being able to be used to an effect by close combat builds. To that, let us explain further some of the balance that will be made with the introduction of this feature.

First, all weak points are not lockable, that means ranged players must aim at those points manually. Your attacks will count as a weak point hit IF it hits near the center of the hitbox, though they are quite large, so ranged AoE weapons like detonators will need to be fired directly at the weak point to score a HIT. You'll see a yellow number instead of the normal white as indication of that.



Second, status balancing has occured once again, this time with this system in mind. Close combat players do not need to hit at weak points to hit hard but will hit much higher if they can hit the weak point. Ranged players have receive a slightly lower damage balancing, but with the ease of access to weakpoints at all times, they can consistently do good damage.

Third, weakpoints are easily accessible when bosses deplete their stamina. This means close combat players that can hit bosses to the ground will have windows where they can delete bosses' health bar (in conjunction with the new QB update). We'll keep an eye on these factors and see if we'll need to perform any balancing before the final patch of 0.9.0 kicks in a week later.

And on another note, we'll be disabling all special movement openers (rise, leap, etc.) in 0.9.0. We know this is controversial as players who played with "no-locks" (or challenge themselves to not use it) hate the system so much due to how our algorithm calculates which move to use while players who utilized "locks" skillfully on and off at the correct moment loved the system and had a great time using to to follow enemies, especially bosses, around with ease. We've disabled them this time as we wanted the first group of players to have an easier game to play in this higher skill ceiling. Until we find a good way to bring them back in the future, we'll keep it disabled.

To close out, the weak point system and the disabling of these was only possible with how late we are and how long we took to get this update out. We do have a date in mind now and everything is looking good. See you next week!

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Hello everyone. We're at the end of October now and with November in sight, the update looms closer (yes, we're still on that HOPIUM road saying we'll update the game in November). With that said, we'd like to show an extra content we've worked on while finalizing other systems, a new hunt mission.



Here, you'll find yourself in a dried-up waterway inside a shelter, facing against M.A.S.S. units, helping the W.D.F. test their version of unmanned units. As always with M.A.S.S. units enemies, it's going to be a mayhem of explosions and we hope you'll have fun with it.















Discord: discord.gg/quS7E46
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A few weeks ago, we've shown you new simple parts coming into version 0.9.0 but haven't provided the full description of how they'll be unlocked or how many parts will be there. With today's WIP update, we'd like to go into detail about the topic.

In 0.9.0. simple parts or "base" parts of every ranged weapon type (Bullet Shooter, Energy Shooter, Bullet Launcher, Energy Launcher) will be making its way into the game. Every firing method will be receiving a set of similar looking parts so players can feel free to choose which base part they wanted to accessorize and which firing method they'll use. The only exception being Bullet Launchers as they need to correspond to the number of warheads they'll fire.



In addition, these base parts will be provided to every player with no unlock requirements. This is due to our desire to have people able to start customizing from scratch even when they just started the game as well as veterans who started a new save for whatever reason. We'll also be making a pass to other parts and see if we should change where their blueprints are dropped, or whether to just straight up provide them at the start, but this will be done gradually so don't expect any yet in 0.9.0.









Discord: discord.gg/quS7E46
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Well hello everyone! This WIP was a bit late due to some complications and it'll be a bit on the shorter, but exciting side. As you might've read from the headlines, our 3D artist took your suggestions to heart and have created a small set of accessories with Quarks as a theme. We hope you all will be as excited as us to have these things in game soon!



Discord: discord.gg/quS7E46
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