So all you got this game for free

[Sage Pirotess]

You got for freem played beta, but to lazy to post a review. The dev should of chosen better people to give the game away to for free.

[Karinanima]

The people who got the game for free is simple: Everybody who made any purchase before November 1th in the main-game.
There could be anybody in there, including people too lazy to post a review and the ones who do it.

[Sage Pirotess]

I have never heard of the game, nor do i understand the game or the means they preordered. By buying probably a $1 item on xyz site.

I do normely fund kickstarters, or other early accesses but i also post reviews for those games on release.

As this game was kinda confusing to preorder. And it looks like a slide scrolling shooter it does intrest me.

[Karinanima]

Originally posted by kasain:

I have never heard of the game, nor do i understand the game or the means they preordered. By buying probably a $1 item on xyz site.

I do normely fund kickstarters, or other early accesses but i also post reviews for those games on release.

As this game was kinda confusing to preorder. And it looks like a slide scrolling shooter it does intrest me.

Wastelands is a side-game.
The main-game is Strike.
Previous to the history of strike, the devs tried to provide PvE inside a free-to-play PvP game.
But they failed miserably at it.
So they decided to remove the PvE content, move it to a paid-game, and flesh it out more which is Wastelands.
People who have made any kind of purchase in the f2p game, receive Wastelands for free.

[PlasmaJedi]

There was originally supposed to be a whole campaign like this in the base game, which is now Airmech Strike. Years ago, it was advertised as going to anyone who bought Airmech Prime, a permanent status upgrade that was supposed to be like buying a full retail game. The free2play side was always meant to be for letting everyone help test the game and to refine and improve it.

Over time, they got distracted and lost sight of getting around to a campaign mode. Add to the fact that, since they weren't being scammy with it, Airmech wasn't bringing in much f2p profits, they were getting lost trying to "fix" a pvp title that had worn out it's lifespan and never really paid its bills. They almost pulled the plug...

Then they decided to give it a last shot. Their 1 version of Airmech that stood alone as a premium VR game brought in more money in the tiny sliver of customers who played VR than the freemium version ever did. So, they decided to make a new, stand alone game, linked to the PvP version, but NOT as a freemium title. This, is that game. It's fun, it's good, it's still buggy as duck as a Early Access title, but it's here!

There's a full, 3-part letter by the main dev, CarbonJames, in Airmech Strike's new feed a few months back.

[Outsider]

Originally posted by kasain:

You got for freem played beta, but to lazy to post a review. The dev should of chosen better people to give the game away to for free.

No not for free. PvE campaign was a promised feature in the Alpha/Beta buid, and a lot of people supported the promise with their money.
People like me.
I don't care much for PvP and Arena games, but I like mechs and stuff, so thinking "I would really like a campaign in this thing" I went and bought a bunch of packs.

And guess what several years down the line I'm getting what I was promised. I'm actually entitled to it, and devs kept their promise.
So yeah it's not free, it is, in a sense, pre-order.

[CarbonJames]

A lot of people were interested in the campaign, but it is still just a small percentage of players who originally came looking for a PvP F2P experience--which on the surface excludes a ton of players. I get it, F2P is like kryptonite to many people. Our intention wasn't to make evil F2P when we started out, but with where F2P has gone over the past 6 years it is hard to message that you are different.

As developers who came from more traditional PC and console backgrounds, we always struggled with the F2P design. For us Wastelands is much simpler--once you know everyone has paid something then all you want is to make sure everyone has fun. You don't have to worry if a player will cost more to have than they will spend, or think about monetization.

The upside to doing F2P though was now we know about "metrics" and we can use them to help us balance out the RPG side of things. Drops, mission difficulty. Having players in the game helps a ton with generating data to highlight the areas we need to improve.

[CarbonJames]

To the point about this being a kickstarter or something, we provided the gift copies as actual gifts--we didn't have to give it out, but as we decided to remove the start of the campaign from Strike (to make it more PvP focused) we felt it was the "right" thing to do to give all the supporters the game to square things up.

Percent of players who did spend anything I think hovers around 4%, however the vast majority of them bought the Starter Pack or higher (it's rarely on sale), and many of them spend quite a bit more. Instead of splitting hairs over who gets access and who doesn't, it was easier to just give everyone access.

Additionally, we do know who has paid for it and who got it as a gift. We are (or will be, if it's not already working) giving players who do buy it some extra stuff. We have these neat bundles where we can add stuff to them later too (we are in the "alpha bundle" phase for Wastelands) and are really happy to apply all these things from the F2P side in a non-F2P way. :)

[Sage Pirotess]

Well, I will buy your game. I do like supporting smaller devs or kickstarter or indies. I do admit i get frustrated at times when others get a hold of a game that I can't figure out how.

I try to spread the word on these smaller games. I wish you luck.

Your videos showed off the game to me as a side scroller shooter but seems more like civ type. Either way I will try it out.

[PlasmaJedi]

Originally posted by kasain:

Well, I will buy your game. I do like supporting smaller devs or kickstarter or indies. I do admit i get frustrated at times when others get a hold of a game that I can't figure out how.

I try to spread the word on these smaller games. I wish you luck.

Your videos showed off the game to me as a side scroller shooter but seems more like civ type. Either way I will try it out.

It's not a side scroller. Its a top-down action rts. Unique to it is the fact that you are an off-brand Decepticon and can both fly, fight, and order your armies about. It's a lot like a MOBA with capturing bases etc, but you build armies instead or relying on creeps and stuff, as well as fighting.

You can play Strike for free, to get a feel for it. I love it. Build and lead your army from the front lines!

[TTV/Pro_studio]

Hello Dan I can help you just accept the friend invite.

[aytimothy]

Originally posted by kasain:

I have never heard of the game, nor do i understand the game or the means they preordered. By buying probably a $1 item on xyz site.

I do normely fund kickstarters, or other early accesses but i also post reviews for those games on release.

As this game was kinda confusing to preorder. And it looks like a slide scrolling shooter it does intrest me.

fyi: $5 USD was the minimum purchase amount to even qualify for "Free Wastelands".

[Sage Pirotess]

I got the game thanks to the great Propro's help?

[| Stuart98 ||]

Originally posted by aytimothy:

Originally posted by kasain:

I have never heard of the game, nor do i understand the game or the means they preordered. By buying probably a $1 item on xyz site.

I do normely fund kickstarters, or other early accesses but i also post reviews for those games on release.

As this game was kinda confusing to preorder. And it looks like a slide scrolling shooter it does intrest me.

fyi: $5 USD was the minimum purchase amount to even qualify for "Free Wastelands".

I actually don't think this is true, based on James comments spending $1 (waaay back in 2012, or on a "pay what you want" bundle in 2015) would be sufficient.

[CarbonJames]

Correct, the "auto" Silver VIP kicks in at just under $10 spent, but there were other things that explicitly added Silver VIP status. And the name your price bundles, and some very very old purchases from AirMech Alpha that didn't register in that system.

That's why if the redeem inside Strike does not work for you, but you are pretty sure you did make a purchase of some kind, check with [e-mail]. They would need your ingame AirMech name (it would be shown inside Strike) or your SteamID (the long number starting with 7).

[Sage Pirotess]

I do think the dev team is supportive of their game andcommunity.