Mechadroids Update 0.5.1
Posted on Wednesday, 9th May, 2012
Here is our first balance update for Mechadroids version 0.5.x. We've tweaked a few things and run a reset.
With each release we're running a 20 question quiz. Congratulations to 'Pringle' won the prize of 300 fragments, 'Dracuella' won 200 fragments and 'Inveracity' won 100 fragments! We'll be running another one today so feel free to drop by our IRC channel.
All participants will receive 50 frags and frags are premium content currency for Deadworld Studios!
Changes:
- [Server] Battle turn sequence algorithm has been improved to make it scale better
- [Server] Attack and defence attribute calculations have been improved for scaling
- [Server] Bot Mechadroids slowly gain credits each hour up to a maximum
- [Server] Credit stealing from lower levels has a much greater fall-off
Bugs Fixed:
- [Client] Players leaderboard is sometimes duplicated when returning from inactivity
- [Client] Crashes in players leaderboard when returning from inactivity
- [Client] Crashes in techlab/store/weapons lab/shields lab when returning from inactivity
- [Client] Adding a player from the 'Recent Events' could cause a crash
Mechadroids Update 0.5.0
Posted on Wednesday, 2nd May, 2012
We have a big update for you today! Mechadroids 0.5.0 has just been released!
We're very proud to show off all the new artwork. The game has been brought to life with the style shining through. This is the last major release before we launch Mechadroids onto Google Play. Starting today we enter a month of rapid balance testing and so we need your support now more than ever.
For the next three to four weeks we'll be running Mechadroids for week long rounds and then changing the balance to see how well the game plays out. During this time we'll also fix any obvious bugs, show stoppers and quick wins.
We're almost at the major milestone so wish us luck and we hope you enjoy the release!
Here is the full changelog...
New Features:
- Custom Mechadroid creation with three Mechadroid types to choose from!
- Implemented 'Fragments' for buying premium content items
- Premium content store added for buying premium items
- 'Coolant' in-app purchase item to reduce heat
- 'No Adverts' in-app purchase item to remove in-game adverts
- Encrypted communication between client and server
Changes:
- Most of the art in the game has been updated (lots of changes!)
- Overview displays your custom Mechadroid
- Battle overview now displays your Mechadroid and your opponents Mechadroid
- Changed the 'Help' to 'Tutorial' that contains an easy to follow guide
- Mechadroids launcher icon has been updated
- Added icons for credits and fragments to replace the words 'credits' and 'fragments'
- Changed the layout of the Overview's attributes
- Added the coolant activation button to the Overview
Bugs Fixed:
- Crash when a new user tries to log in
- The Hub shows 'Unknown' result on the first ever load and before selecting any activities
- Selection zones of 'The Hub' were not working for some phone resolutions
Mechadroids Update 0.4.0
Posted on Friday, 17th February, 2012
After a few busy weeks of Ludum Dare, conferences, gaming nights and a successful world record attempt we still had time to continue working on Mechadroids so here is version 0.4.0!
One of the major new features is the much requested zero player activities. We've implemented this in the form of 'The Hub' where you visit the nearby city to complete one of four activities described in the changelog. We hope this introduces various ways for Mechadroids to help themselves out of ruts in the game and to successfully beat their foes!
We hope you guys enjoy this version. We're getting close to the Android Market release!
Here is the full changelog...
New Features:
- Notifications now are displayed to the player on first load of Mechadroids
- Training League - Any Mechadroid above level 5 cannot attack a Mechadroid at level 5 or below
- 'The Hub' area added containing four activities that can be set to give you buffs / money
Tune up - Takes 24 hours to complete then gives you a bonus to one of your main attributes for 24 hours
Gambling - Takes 24 hours to complete then gives you money based off your level
Sabotage - Takes 24 hours for you to sabotage Mechadroid supplies. You get 12 hours of bonus to Mechadroid armour penetration
Overclock - Takes 24 hours to complete then gives you a bonus to your shield or weapon for 24 hours
Changes:
- Added different event icons for 'Attack Lost' and 'Defence Lost' to help identify the events for faster reading
- Changed how many credits gained from opponents who are a lower level
- DWS news area renamed to 'Mechadroids News'
- Mechadroids news area loads a lot faster
- 'Upgrade' button moved from 'Overview' area to the 'Techlab' area
- When you first encounter your new level you are prompted to level up - if you don't you can level up via the techlab
- All areas that contain lists (Events, Attack, Scoreboards) are a lot faster now
Bugs Fixed:
- When attacking from the 'Events' list, on return from the fight the events are duplicated
- Selection index problems with the leader and player board (adding wrong friend/foe, attacking wrong Mechadroid) in certain situations
- Crash when overview response takes too long and a user selects 'Attack'
- Player rank is calculated incorrectly when the player is greater than rank/position 10
Mechadroids Update 0.3.0
Posted on Monday, 16th January, 2012
What madness is this? Two Mechadroid releases within half a year of each other and four weeks none the less?! That's right! Here is Mechadroids release 0.3.0!
A few exciting things have happened in the past three weeks. Our community member Inveracity has been very busy creating us a Mechadroid launch video for the previous version 0.2.0 and a full length Mechadroids theme tune! Our community is growing and we're making good progress.
So, what have we thrown together for this release? A few exciting things. Firstly we have tweaked the balance of the game so try it out and see how it has changed. We have also added a contact system for friends and foes. You can now add players as a friend or foe using a long click anywhere you see a player name. This allows you to track how well you're doing against your friends and allow you to attack people anywhere you see a name! In addition to this the detailed battle has new messages that are unique to each weapon and shield. It gives you important information regarding your foe's armour weak points. Next time you fight it might be worth checking them out to get the upper hand in a fight!
Here is the full changelog...
New Features:
- Contacts system with friends and foe leaderboards
- Player only leaderboard
- Unique detailed battle messages
Changes:
- Player highlighting for you (blue) / foes (red) / friends (green) / players (yellow) / bots (white)
- Deadworld news area now works (looks at our twitter account for #mechadroids hashtag)
- Prevented attacking when heat level is maxed out
- Balance changes
Bugs Fixed:
- Various weapons and shields not displaying in the battle overview (thanks Inveracity)
- Mechadroids creation limited to names that contains no spaces and alphanumeric characters only
Enjoy!
Mechadroids Update 0.2.0
Posted on Friday, 23rd December, 2011
We're still here! *waves* Honest! After a lot of delays (Jargon moving to Australia and CWolf being worked to death, quitting, moving to Germany and going DWS fulltime!) we're happy to give you our Christmas present early... a new Mechadroids update!
The new update brings in a few core changes/additions to the game play, general bug fixes and some much needed layout improvements for the smaller resolution phones. With the addition of the targeting system you can now target specific Mechadroid areas to attack. With your armour refit system you'll be able to change where your strengths and weaknesses are. This brings a lot more strategy into Mechadroids that was absent in the last version. We'll be eager to hear your feedback on this.
Two important points are that you can now opt-out of the daily Mechadroids report and more balancing is coming soon! The daily report is only sent if there is activity regarding your Mechadroid so for those of you who may have tagged it as spam you can now untag it as spam and deactivate instead. This would help us out a lot!
Alpha testers can now visit the Mechadroids download area to install or if you happen to have the old version of Mechadroids installed it will prompt you to update.
Here is the full changelog...
New Features:
- Targeting system for battles
- Armour refit system
- Ability to 'opt-out' of the daily report
- Settings area
- Deadworld Studios news area
- Pay to remove adverts support (inactive until released on the Android Market)
- You are asked for confirmation when buying weaker / same strength weapons & shields
Changes:
- Daily reports are now only sent if activity is detected for your Mechadroid
- Weapons and shields are now more expensive
- Battle result is now a battle overview with ability to view further details
- Much better layout for smaller resolution phones
- Leaderboard now highlights human players in red
- Removed donate placeholder
Bugs Fixed:
- Crash related to Paypal and loss of mobile internet signal (Paypal removed)
Enjoy!
Mechadroids Update - Build 78
Posted on Wednesday, 27th July, 2011
We've just released our first update for Mechadroids!
This release was primarily for bug fixing so we're having to push the reset button. Don't worry though because this will bring a balance change to the game! In addition to that new features have been designed are on their way. To obtain the update all you need to do is launch up Mecharoids and it will automatically detect that there is a new version. All you need to do then is select update!
If you haven't been able to install Mechadroids due to being on Android 2.1 you can now visit the download link to install as we've extended our support to your version.
Here is the changelog.
New Features:
- Support Android 2.1+
- Daily battle reports
Changes:
- Improved identification of human players in the attack list
- Game play balancing
Bugs Fixed:
- Infinite crash-loop due to poor signal.
- Fix remote crash logging.
- Escape special characters in client.
- Persist login data when focus is lost.
- Fix login activity resuming correctly.
- Fix attack list bug
Enjoy!
Game Released: Mechadroids - Closed Alpha
Posted on Tuesday, 19th July, 2011
War... war sometimes changes. Tonight we released Mechadroids to the closed alpha testers! We've been playing the game during the evening; we're stealing credits while attacking each other with some insane weaponry.
Alpha testers will receive an email with details on how to play when they have been accepted. We are having some small issues with our emails being sent into spam folders so please check there before taking out your rubbish! If you're a tester please log feedback at Deadworld Feedback. If you have any problems with your login or our websites please email us at info@deadworldstudios.co.uk.
The next few weeks will be used to balance Mechadroids ready for our big release onto the Android Market. Once there anyone with an Android phone will be able to download and play Mechadroids.
Remember for more information visit the Mechadroids information page and the Mechadroids site! Good hunting alphas!
Game Announcement: Mechadroids
Posted on Sunday, 3rd July, 2011
So, finally after all the secretive, nondescript tweets regarding our hard work we'd like to announce a new game - Mechadroids.
Mechadroids is a fast paced, tongue-in-cheek game that will be released on Android, Facebook and the Mechadroids site. Initially, we are only releasing the Android version but we'll be branching into the other platforms soon.
Before we hit the Android Market we're going to have a closed alpha testing period. This will help us iron out any bugs and tweek the game. This period will last a few weeks then we will release Mechadroids onto the market as an open beta.
Help us perfect this game by going to the Mechadroids alpha registration page and registering to join the Android alpha test. Please also visit our forum to share any thoughts you have about the game.
For those who are wondering what our plans are regarding Root Access, you don't need to worry. Mechadroids is a small side project for us that we really wanted to make before we continued development on Root Access, which we consider a much larger project.
Critical Fixes
Posted on Sunday, 3rd July, 2011
Ok, so first off, apologies to anyone who tried to access this site in Internet Explorer recently. I don't know why, but I was under the impression that it supported CSS3, I guess it'll always be slightly behind the learning curve compared to other browsers. However, it is my fault for not testing thoroughly enough. I usually take pride in my sites working in all browsers and I usually do test in all, just neglected IE this time... sorry about that!
I've had to remove the image borders we had (that were in the same style as the title image) as they were too complex for IE. Instead we're using simple CSS2 bevelled borders, and where CSS3 supported, these will become curved borders to try stay in the same style as before.
Another issue that was discovered is the way IE handles default values for the drop down HTML form element, in that it defaults to nothing, instead of the displayed text as all other browsers do. This resulted in the inability to apply for the alpha test if using IE.
These issues have now been corrected and should be functioning normally. If you encounter any issues with this site, please don't hesitate to post the problem on our new feedback centre at http://feedback.deadworldstudios.co.uk.
Sorry for the inconvenience!
- Jargon
Alpha Registration is Open!
Posted on Sunday, 3rd July, 2011
Hello everyone and welcome to the Mechadroids website.
Mechadroids is a mechanoid battle simulator that is free-to-play, fast-paced and combines tongue-in-cheek humour to allow for a quick and fun pick-up-and-play experience. At the moment the game is in early development, but we're happy to announce we're now accepting alpha registrations for the testing of the Android game client. So please head on over to the alpha registration page and submit an application (please note that you need an Android capable device to participate in this alpha).
Please be aware that even though we are now accepting alpha registrations, play testing has not officially begun and therefore you will not receive an alpha key until shortly before it does. There is no official date on when play testing will commence yet, but please keep an eye on our official site for news and updates so you know when it does. We will be processing alpha registrations on a first-come, first-served basis as long as the applicant has a supported device. If we encounter an application, which specifies a device that is not supported, we contact the applicant and let them know of the situation.
One last thing, Deadworld Studios is a small group of independent developers with normal jobs and real lives, so please be patient with us as we wrap up the final stages of Mechadroids so that we can make the first alpha release.
Thank you!
- The Deadworld Studios Team