Mech Engineer News

Update 65 (Ross 154)

Hello!
Thank you for playing the game and leaving your feedback.

Here is this month's changelog:

[h3]M:\Modding[/h3]

Create custom world maps with the restored in-game map editor. Press f6 then f10 on the global map screen 1-9 to change the draw type, ENTER to save to a file in your save folder.
Choose what sound will your custom weapon play with the new parameter "base_gun[i,17]"
Bullets will mimic some of the mechanics of another weapon type with the new parameter "base_gun[i,18]"
Control walls default durability with the new parameter in the balance file

[h3]I:\Interface[/h3]

Hovering over weapon icons on mechs in engineering, hangar, and battles will show full information about the gun, including fire rate, accuracy, damage, and armor penetration.
Improved the visibility of the switch(scroll wheel) for huge weapons in the production menu
Various small fixes in RU and ENG localisations

[h3]B:\Balance[/h3]

///Buffs
Increased speed of Colubra's energy sphere by 10%
Increased power of Colubra's energy sphere by 10%
Improved loot in the cities, making it more viable mid-game
All walls became 15% more durable
Worry a little less about sending ordinary humans into infected maps with a lower chance of infection from 100% to 60% per hit
Increased health of the Frog Boss from the Satellite crash site map by 30%
///Nerfs
Ballistic projectiles will be 20% more slowed when passing through enemies
Increased 5 times the cost of production of all internal components for reactors of the second and third tiers
Lowered speed of drone's repair by 15%
Rockets will have a delayed activation that will prevent them from exploding when contacting a wall too soon. The delay is constant so huge explosions can still reach your mechs.

[h3]H:\Hangar[/h3]

Remember each fallen hero with the new memorial wall in the pilots' menu. Click at the bottom to open it.

[h3]C:\Combat[/h3]

Rediscover the Flamethrower and Toxin Sprayer with proper damage-dealing registration
The leader of the squad will be a little more responsive to your commands
To better show that the enemy's projectiles aren't penetrating the mech's armor they will ricochet
Fixed the wrong priority number of enemy turrets. They were marked as Ovums
Annoying tornadoes won't spawn too close to your squad anymore
You will have time to disable weapons with the removed delay before autopause at the start of the mission
Satellite crash site map will have more open spaces

[h3]O:\Other_changes[/h3]

Fixed achievement "I SAY KILL THEM ALL". It now should properly count the last kills.
Fixed the crash related to mod upload gml_Object_obj_controller_Other_69 (line 58)
Ovums' tentacles got a new animation that changes their thickness depending on the length

Patch

[h3]B:\Balance[/h3]

///Buffs
Increased armor for Holo mechs from 1 to 6.
Cyborgs will ignore the relation to the squad leader and always obey.
///Nerfs
Lowered damage for fire pools made with the fire weapon mod by 20%.

[h3]C:\Combat[/h3]

To represent how armor works on bosses, an additional bar of armor value was added under their health bar.
Tornado will no longer be able to pick up the orbital gun in its whirl.
Turrets should no longer be able to stuck in the walls.
Enemy turrets and Ovums that spawn during pause should keep their inertia and continue to move after unpause.
Multiple fire pools made by the weapon's fire mod will properly deal damage to the entity at the same time. Before it sometimes didn't count damage if there was more than one pool.

[h3]F:\Fixes[/h3]

Fixed crash on the weapon testing screen, caused by too many projectiles.
Fixed rare crashes in the volcanic areas.
Fixed inability to select mechs in slots 5-8 by clicking on their cards on the interface during battle.
Map destructions will be saved only on retreat or defeat. It should lower the save file size and prevent file corruption.
For every last save will be created a backup file that should help you restore your save if something corrupts it during rewriting.
Fast repair is no longer usable if you don't have enough resources.
Fixed game freeze/slowdown for players, who use SteelSeriesGG or similar software. Resulted in slightly changed pilot's voice effects.
Railgun should properly display heat from shots on the mech's side stats in the construction table.
Fixed wrong time formatting in save file's titles
Lowered amount of particles that appear from kinetic projectiles dealing damage to enemies. Too much railgun damage resulted in a decrease in fps.
Fixed issue with not saving ammo ratio for mechs.
Fixed display for found items after finishing a city mission
Fixed the rare chance of the mech turning into a ghost after death if it had damage points before the start of the battle.

[h3]M:\Modding[/h3]

The following LUA functions are available within obj_battle_map
```
battle_logic
battle_retreat
battle_end
```
The following LUA functions are deleted from obj_battle_map
```
battle_end_default_mechs_dead 
battle_end_default_win
```

Mech Engineer's demo is for people who love hateful interface design

If you heard loud swearing last night in the Watford area it may have been one of two things: 1) me cussing out my (borrowed) Steam Deck while stealthily accessing the wifi from outside a closed public library, as I don't currently have broadband at home, or 2) me subsequently trying to make head or tail of Mech Engineer, in which you take charge of a mobile undersea metropolis and send squads of painstakingly assembled robosoldiers to semi-auto-battle squidgy alien fauna.

Engineering a mech is a Herculean labour whose completion eludes today's puny scientists, and Mech Engineer doesn't aim to make life easier, whatever its putative status as a "means of fun". Mech Engineer is a game with an attitude problem, frankly. I realised this on in-game day two, when the interface coughed up a bunch of damage reports presented as pieces of paper, which I then had to crumple up and toss away individually.

Patch

[h3]F:\Fixes[/h3]

gml_Object_obj_FUI_render_Draw_0 (line 344) (winning with mods should be possible now)
gml_Object_obj_pilot_sheet_Draw_73 (line 24)
gml_Object_obj_content_hangar_Step_0 (line 2356)
gml_Object_obj_first_menu_Draw_0 (line 63)
gml_Object_obj_giant_worm_Step_0 (line 267)
gml_Object_obj_piston_item_Step_0 (line 38) can't fix. Don't use the multi-click mouse button on the construction table
gml_Object_obj_cabin_item_Step_0 (line 37) can't fix. Don't use the multi-click mouse button on the construction table
You no longer lose your mechs and pilots from 5-8 battle slots when moving from the hangar menu.
Removed the possibility of endless order disobeying caused by chance. Now pilots can disobey only one time per given order.
The priority targets menu from the battle prepare screen should now work as intended.
Fixed Steam screenshots feature.
Fixed some Operarius stop walking for a short period after unpause.

[h3]QoL:\features[/h3]

Added sounds of putting pilots into mechs or back into the list
Increased highlight for pilot's perks that you can choose
Added sound for repairing district
Enemies bullets and rockets will be more visible in darkness
Hover over city stats to see which districts influence them
The regular battle view will be automatically turned on after entering an enemy base to help you navigate inside it

Update 64 (Gliese 65) - 1.0 is OUT!

Hello fellow Mech Engineers!

Welcome to the final update for 1.0!
Yes, you have read it right. We have finally made it to 1.0 and I am hugely grateful to everybody who followed and contributed to this incredible adventure.

Thank you so much for playing the game, sharing your feedback, and supporting Mech Engineer, it means the world to me.

Let’s take a look at this month's changelog, it’s definitely a lot:

[h3]M:\Modding[/h3]

Added sprite_collision_mask function

The following LUA functions are available within obj_battle_map

battle_end_default_mechs_dead 
battle_end_default_win
battle_end_scout_mechs_dead
battle_end_scout_win

Make your own custom map with the help of an example mod that has been published to the workshop

[h3]I:\Interface[/h3]

Following an interface overhaul Mech Engineer has been localized into French, German, Polish, Portuguese Brazilian, Simplified Chinese, and Spanish
Save slots from the main menu have taken on the appearance of punchcards
Mouse over an installed mech, reactor or weapon when using the construction table to view a tooltip message
Updated the image for the error message that appears when attempting to place a reactor that has not been properly tuned to better prompt players to assemble and ignite their reactors
Turn on the testing chamber for a weapon or mech to hear the pleasant sound of a cathode-ray tube
The sound of cogs quietly rotating plays when switching between artillery and order mode during a battle
Added an effect for when a module is taken away from the construction table
The reload stat in a mech's information sheet will take into account the processor program for accelerated reloading speed of kinetic weapons from available energy (press middle mouse button over a mech to bring up its paper information sheet)

[h3]B:\Balance[/h3]

///Buffs
Improved the slow effect of projectile weapons equipped with the slowdown mod on Aries by about 25%
Doubled damage from rockets and explosions, but scaling has been lowered to keep explosion size the same
Nuclear missile resource cost reduced from 400 Bjorn to 200 and 600 Munilone to 500
Increased Toxin Sprayer base damage from 4 to 6
Doubled the ammunition capacity of thermal-type weapons
Doubled the health of Fulgur
Watch out: the purple sword boss Titanus Monstrum has increased turn rate speed while each phase time has been increased by 15%. Caecilia will periodically spawn in when the boss enters its regeneration phase.
///Nerfs
Increased the cost of ammunition to go into battle by 10%
Doubled time between orders for pilots with low reaction stat
Reduced chance of lightning appearing from 75% to 50%
Reduced chance of tornadoes from 95% to 75%
Reduced the frequency of Fulgur appearance
The purple sword boss Titanus Monstrum has also received some nerfs: Colubras and tentacles spawn further away from the head, enemy artillery is less frequent during the scorching gaze phase, missile firing speed has been reduced by 30% and boss health has been cut from 1 million to 500 thousand.

[h3]E:\Engineering[/h3]

Excessive use of capacitators to get temperature resistance over 100% (this previously allowed you to freeze your reactor by firing lasers) now has diminishing returns with each subsequent capacitor
Cheesing additional resources from disassembling weapons when large weapon creation mode is enabled has been nixed

[h3]H:\Hangar[/h3]

Brief descriptions of enemy abilities have stopped disappearing on the global map
Increased the passive income of free nuclear warheads from 1 to 2 per week
Tired of moving your mechs to the engineering section when you have enough Metallite? Use the quick repair button in the Hangar to fix any amount of damage

[h3]C:\Combat[/h3]

All pilots have their own personalized fully-voiced phrases and will scream horribly when you fail a mission
Pilots will be more scared when if one of them dies
Very high and very low values of stress resistance have less effect on stress during battle
Pilots with high free will values will more frequently try to find the best position to shoot from
Fixed inconsistencies in some messages when swapping between normal and fullscreen mode during battle
Pressing the escape button during battle will pause the game
Increased size of missile collision box so they stop flying through small targets at high speeds
Operarius scatter around the battlefield when enemy artillery shots land
Removed volcanic areas from underground bases

[h3]O:\Other_changes[/h3]

Added 15 achievements - can you take out one million Operarius?
The number of underground bases that have been destroyed during a mission is properly reflected in the post-mission statistics
Interface lightning supports different screen resolutions
No more weapon card pop-ups overlapping when mousing over mech weapons
Nuking a map cell adjacent to your city previously blocked the player from moving to that cell - you no longer have to skip a day, move elsewhere or capture a different cell to then move into the nuked cell
Frequent alt-tabbing in and out of the game during battle should no longer result in the textures for red-colored slowdown zones taking on a weird appearance
The crash bug involving empty pilot portraits after a victory has been fixed
There used to be a rare game freeze when installing a city for the first time, but it's gone now

If your save files are not working correctly or something has broken with this update, please use the oneversionback branch, leave a message in the forums or join the Mech Engineer Discord to get support in the #bugs channel.

Again, let me share with you my enthusiasm and my gratitude for supporting me all along these wonderful years of development of Mech Engineer.

We can now enjoy the full Mech Engineer experience, together!