Recently we launched three experimental features for Mechabellum, and after a few days of testing, we feel we have enough feedback from all of you to share some of our own learning and insights. The purpose of this Q&A post is to answer a few questions we saw pop up most often since we introduced these experimental features.
Q: Why launch the free unit cards system?
The goal of free unit cards is to provide players with a richer and more varied gaming experience. When we designed this system, we had the following design goals:
1. Allow players to face more varied strategic situations during the game, and reduce the feeling of repetition after playing for a long time.
2. Provide players with more opportunities to make strategic adjustments, and reduce the feeling of powerlessness in the late stages of the game.
3. Increase the importance of adaptability in the strategy.
4. Give many less-used units a chance to play, avoid the situation where only a few types of units are on the board.
Q: Is the purpose of free unit cards to weaken competitiveness and cater to casual players?
It’s not. Free unit cards are designed to add depth to Mechabellum’s competitive layer. How to correctly choose free unit cards tests the player's experience, analytical skills, and creative thinking. Players who have a deeper understanding of the game have a greater advantage than before. Judging from the already available data, the winning rate of high-level players is even higher than before. At the highest level (around 2000 MMR), the competitiveness has not declined and rather seems to have improved slightly.
On the other hand, more casual players now face greater challenges. In the past, new players had to be concerned with only 3-4 types of deployed units. With the free unit card system, the players need to have a certain level of understanding of all 19 types of units. We understand that a system tweak of this level requires all of you to re-learn some tactics and habits, but we hope that as you play more, and get comfortable with this new feature, you’ll find it as engaging as we believe it to be.
Q: I am a hardcore player, and I just feel that free unit cards greatly increase the randomness of the game. What is your opinion on this matter?
Free unit cards do introduce an element of randomness into the game, which increases the sense of randomness in the game. I’d like to share a few personal thoughts on this that I hope can help explain our reasoning behind this change further:
1. The free unit cards are intended to add a layer of randomness and reactivity on the player’s part to the game. A system like that will naturally feel even more chaotic when it’s new and is being put to test by a broad group of players, for the first time. We believe that as you play the game more, over the next week or two, you’ll get more accustomed to identifying new strategies and permutations possible in any given moment of the match. That said, we will of course observe your feedback and continue to analyze data, and will make adjustments on our end as needed.
2. Some of the free unit cards in the first patch are simply too powerful, which sometimes results in only one of the four free unit cards being worth choosing. Such a narrow selection greatly amplifies the random impact on the battle. We've now re-balanced the free unit cards in the latest patch, hoping to improve this situation and give players more options to plan and counter more effectively.
3. In the past, we didn’t explain the appearance mechanism of free unit cards clearly enough. As a result, many of you didn’t know how to predict and counter the appearance of free unit cards. That - understandably - further amplified the sense of randomness some of you described. The relevant rules are now explained in detail in the latest 0.7.44 update patch. We hope that will make it easier for you all to prepare your tactics and anticipate possible combat scenarios in your matches.
Q: I don’t like the new free unit card. Will you remove this feature after the three-week trial period?
As the update was only just recently released, we feel we don’t yet have sufficient data and information to determine whether to retain the free unit cards. Frankly speaking however, based on the available data, we are currently quite satisfied with the positive impact the free unit cards have brought to the game. After the three-week experiment period ends and everyone’s opinions are divided, we’ll evaluate whether to add “classic” and “standard” queues for 1v1. That said, we want to make it clear there is a downside to that, as having two queues will slow down match-making speed. Due to that we will not make this decision hastily and will carefully analyze the data before making a final decision.
Q: Why are duplicate reinforcement cards allowed?
The reason we made this change is to provide players who have played the game for a long time with a more varied gaming experience. We are still observing the impact of this change on game balance and will evaluate whether to keep it, as the test concludes.
Q: Why are the deployment areas in the first round reduced by two squares? Is this making the offensive tactics too weak?
We always believed that the unit positions of the first round were a relatively weak part of the game. The reason is that all units in the first round can move at will, so it is difficult to predict the opponent's tactics. In this patch, we hope to limit the deployment area in the first round, while using free unit cards to increase the possibility of using offensive tactics in later rounds. If this experiment is successful, we will have more room to adjust the core of the past offensive tactics such as Rhino and Steel Ball.
Q: Are offensive tactics too weak?
Judging from the data and feedback collected so far, the traditional offensive tactics of using only 3-4 types of units have indeed been weakened. However, at the same time, the offensive tactics of using a variety of different units have been enhanced. At this moment we’re not ready to draw decisive conclusions and want to analyze more data as it comes in.
Q: When is the next update?
The next 10 days will be the Chinese New Year holiday, and most colleagues will return to their hometowns to reunite with their families. After the holiday, we will immediately start working on the next update based on feedback. The new patch will be rolled out at the end of February.
