When will this game go f2p?

[Aneyh]

I've monitored this game for quite some time now and remember how they changed monetization of the game from f2p to p2p. Its looks like by next year it'll have a pop size of less than 2k players. Eventually it'll be hard to find matches so naturally it'll probably go f2p like it was intended originally. Why do you guys think it will either go f2p or not? Are you guys happy with the state of the game and the choices the devs made?

[Renee_meel]

Imho they focused to much on trying to balance for high level pvp instead of focusing on fun and creativity. Instead of chess they turned the game into poker. Which is fine for some people, just not a majority.

The game feels random in a lot of ways and at the same time not really varied despite the impressive choice of units.

[Aneyh]

Originally posted by Renee_meel:

Imho they focused to much on trying to balance for high level pvp instead of focusing on fun and creativity. Instead of chess they turned the game into poker. Which is fine for some people, just not a majority.

The game feels random in a lot of ways and at the same time not really varied despite the impressive choice of units.

Its hard to explain what you are saying but it does give that vibe. I think it falls into the same problem Legion TD 2 has despite being mostly PvE. How the game plays out is fun but imho I'd rather wait for the next auto battler game to do it different and wait a couple years for this game to potentially go f2p.

[Lifepath [CdE]]

Hello. The game is absolutely awsome. I don't think i have had that much interest in any strategy game ever. I also really appreciate how the devs act. They are honest. They love their game and don't want to ruin it for monetization. They listen to the players but are also solid on their vision for the game. They also make a great work on the balance and try to adress all the issues on a regular basis. The game is highly balanced but you can definitely play creative and crazy and have it work up to a certain level. And some players manage to have very creative aggro plays work at the high mmr. I have 1800+ Mmr and 850 hours on the game.

[Lifepath [CdE]]

Originally posted by Aneyh:

Originally posted by Renee_meel:

Imho they focused to much on trying to balance for high level pvp instead of focusing on fun and creativity. Instead of chess they turned the game into poker. Which is fine for some people, just not a majority.

The game feels random in a lot of ways and at the same time not really varied despite the impressive choice of units.

Its hard to explain what you are saying but it does give that vibe. I think it falls into the same problem Legion TD 2 has despite being mostly PvE. How the game plays out is fun but imho I'd rather wait for the next auto battler game to do it different and wait a couple years for this game to potentially go f2p.

If you like auto battler, missing out on Mechabellum is very sad

[Arti_Sel]

Originally posted by Lifepath CdE:

Originally posted by Aneyh:

Its hard to explain what you are saying but it does give that vibe. I think it falls into the same problem Legion TD 2 has despite being mostly PvE. How the game plays out is fun but imho I'd rather wait for the next auto battler game to do it different and wait a couple years for this game to potentially go f2p.:cozyprodman:

If you like auto battler, missing out on Mechabellum is very sad

Go into any competitive game and listen to salt from those stuck in low mmr and ofc it's not going to sound that great.

This is the most well-balanced and strategic/tactical autobattler on the market today. No gamba mechanics, it's pure strategy.

[Aneyh]

Originally posted by Arti_Sel:

Originally posted by Lifepath CdE:

If you like auto battler, missing out on Mechabellum is very sad

Go into any competitive game and listen to salt from those stuck in low mmr and ofc it's not going to sound that great.

This is the most well-balanced and strategic/tactical autobattler on the market today. No gamba mechanics, it's pure strategy.

I'm no push over when it comes to competitive games or being sweaty. I do like the idea of the game but it did feel meta-heavy when I last watched/played it. Like Renee said, it feels like a lot of variety but really still comes down to a few clearly op meta strats(usually rng helps make meta less consistent in matches etc). Maybe during the next free weekend event Ill come back and reassess the good, bad and ugly.

[Renee_meel]

Originally posted by Arti_Sel:

Go into any competitive game and listen to salt from those stuck in low mmr and ofc it's not going to sound that great.

This is the most well-balanced and strategic/tactical autobattler on the market today. No gamba mechanics, it's pure strategy.

Your problem is tunnel vision. You are so focussed on your "high mmr" that you no longer see the obvious.

[Arti_Sel]

Originally posted by Aneyh:

Originally posted by Arti_Sel:

Go into any competitive game and listen to salt from those stuck in low mmr and ofc it's not going to sound that great.

This is the most well-balanced and strategic/tactical autobattler on the market today. No gamba mechanics, it's pure strategy.

I'm no push over when it comes to competitive games or being sweaty. I do like the idea of the game but it did feel meta-heavy when I last watched/played it. Like Renee said, it feels like a lot of variety but really still comes down to a few clearly op meta strats(usually rng helps make meta less consistent in matches etc).

It's really not. I'm playing at around 2000mmr, oftentimes in the top 200 worldwide, sometimes top 100. There are some similarities between game-starts that can be roughly summarized as aggro headbutt, standard vs standard and aggro vs standard. But the formation of these and the units within can be entirely different from game to game and player to player. And after the first 2 turns or so every game becomes something entirely different from the last. The slightest change in positioning can cause a game to spiral into something new.

The complaints are oftentimes from netdeckers who hate "rng" because it messes up their copy-paste cookie-cutter builds that they have no business piloting. The complaint about rng and then about meta isn't even internally congruent, the tiny bit of draft rng (as opposed to gamba rng that's the norm in autobattlers) breaks up the formation of a hardline meta. As with their copy-paste gameplay netdeckers just stole the complaint about "meta" because they have seen that complaint be useful in other games, they just have no idea wtf they are talking about.

Originally posted by Aneyh:

Maybe during the next free weekend event Ill come back and reassess the good, bad and ugly.

Yeah you should. Form your own conclusions. And ask for help if you need it.

[Mivo]

Originally posted by Aneyh:

I do like the idea of the game but it did feel meta-heavy when I last watched/played it.

Any competitive PvP game will have a meta in this time and age. You could argue that even chess and Go have metas (openings and josekis, plus well-researched end-game sequences), and they had these for hundreds of years! Even "cheese" and traps existed in Go since at least the 1600s where they are called "trick plays".

There are always going to be strategies that work better than others and when enough people flock to them and copy them, they'll be the meta for some time until so many players use them that counter-strategies emerge and the meta shifts again. The meta frequently changes even without balance changes that impact the majority of players.

(And Mechabellum does get balance patches very frequently. We'll probably get one later today/tomorrow again, two weeks after the last one. This game is getting patched more often than most competitive games on Steam.)

Case in point, the newest thing is sledges/boats or sledges/typhoon, which only got popular because a content creator started using it and found it to work well in the context of the pre-existing meta. For a few days, that worked really well and many players started copying it. Now people have come up with decent counters for that strategy too, and so everything stays in flux.

I feel Mechabellum allows for a great amount of skill expression and different playstyles, even more so in the MMR ranges where the vast majorities of players are at. 2000+ is not where most players play at. The rock-paper-scissors fundamentals make that possible. Everything has a counter. Positioning makes a huge difference, and there are very many nuances to that.

The issue, if there is one, is that in any competitive PvP game, the overwhelming number of players don't really experiment much or work out their own strategies. They'll just hit YouTube or Twitch and look for efficient strategies someone else came up with, then try to copy them.

I feel this can be a recipe for frustration, because often these strategies are copied without a deep understanding of why they work. I did this when I was playing Gwent a lot, and in the end it spoiled the game for me. Part of the problem is probably that if someone looks for meta builds, it implies they are strongly focused on winning and obtaining a high rating quickly, rather than on self-learning and discovering strategies on their own. Being a "meta slave" is bound to cause frustration, at least that is how it always played out for me.

Anyway, the game is 15 euros/USD at the regular price (right now it's on sale, so it's a little cheaper), which makes it more affordable than most games here, including indie games. I don't know what the future plans are, but strictly personally, I'd not wait for something that may or may not happen in the possibly distant future just to save 10 or 15 bucks when I can have an engaging gaming and community experience and start learning right away.

Even if the game did go F2P down the road (I'm not privy to any such plans), you'd have a tremendous competitive advantage if you had started playing earlier.

[Sonnenbank(Raphael am zocken)]

To the guys saying its "meta heavy"

what is the current meta ?
i made it this season from 1200mmr (after 5 month break at season start my mmr got reset from 1350 to 1200)to 1600mmr with 80% winrate not even knowing anything about current metas.

So what is current meta ?

[Aneyh]

Originally posted by Arti_Sel:

Originally posted by Aneyh:

I'm no push over when it comes to competitive games or being sweaty. I do like the idea of the game but it did feel meta-heavy when I last watched/played it. Like Renee said, it feels like a lot of variety but really still comes down to a few clearly op meta strats(usually rng helps make meta less consistent in matches etc).

It's really not. I'm playing at around 2000mmr, oftentimes in the top 200 worldwide, sometimes top 100. There are some similarities between game-starts that can be roughly summarized as aggro headbutt, standard vs standard and aggro vs standard. But the formation of these and the units within can be entirely different from game to game and player to player. And after the first 2 turns or so every game becomes something entirely different from the last. The slightest change in positioning can cause a game to spiral into something new.

The complaints are oftentimes from netdeckers who hate "rng" because it messes up their copy-paste cookie-cutter builds that they have no business piloting. The complaint about rng and then about meta isn't even internally congruent, the tiny bit of draft rng (as opposed to gamba rng that's the norm in autobattlers) breaks up the formation of a hardline meta. As with their copy-paste gameplay netdeckers just stole the complaint about "meta" because they have seen that complaint be useful in other games, they just have no idea wtf they are talking about.

Originally posted by Aneyh:

Maybe during the next free weekend event Ill come back and reassess the good, bad and ugly.

Yeah you should. Form your own conclusions. And ask for help if you need it.

Please reread what I said. I see where you are coming from but I'm really just stating my opinion.

Originally posted by Sonnenbank:

To the guys saying its "meta heavy"

what is the current meta ?
i made it this season from 1200mmr (after 5 month break at season start my mmr got reset from 1350 to 1200)to 1600mmr with 80% winrate not even knowing anything about current metas.

So what is current meta ?

I haven't played in a long time so I wouldn't know. Back when I played, mustangs were essentially all you needed (some other good units mixed in etc). I'm sure its more balanced now. Since I've played many auto battlers it did feel intuitive on how you build/play decks. Through playing 3 or so hrs and watching gameplay on and off I can see that what I am saying rings true to me and probably others.

Originally posted by Mivo:

Anyway, the game is 15 euros/USD at the regular price (right now it's on sale, so it's a little cheaper), which makes it more affordable than most games here, including indie games. I don't know what the future plans are, but strictly personally, I'd not wait for something that may or may not happen in the possibly distant future just to save 10 or 15 bucks when I can have an engaging gaming and community experience and start learning right away.

Even if the game did go F2P down the road (I'm not privy to any such plans), you'd have a tremendous competitive advantage if you had started playing earlier.

The game does things well like gameplay/artstyle/units/variety/etc. I might put money into the game at a later date but waiting for the potential of f2p is not an issue. I do plan to play it on the next free weekend and see what's new and do some research.

[Shaia_Tempari]

They're not going F2P. It's $11 right now, so worth a try at that price, which is cheaper than whaling anyways.

[Sonnenbank(Raphael am zocken)]

i am very happy with the game currently.

Its for sure not perfect but there is nothing like it on the market.
after 5 month break i returned and have since played another 60h and this time i am not bored yet.

And all this for currently 11€
come one

if you like mech and strategy its a must buy for that price

[atomikkrab]

The HELL is a meta? I have had significant fun in my few games so far just doing really annoying things to people.

Here have half a dozen crawlers up your backside. Airdrop a rhino into the backfield of the player most behind in a 4 player brawl so they collapse because its funny.

If you complain about meta? try smooshing your robots into faces more.

[werd]

Originally posted by Renee_meel:

Imho they focused to much on trying to balance for high level pvp instead of focusing on fun and creativity. Instead of chess they turned the game into poker. Which is fine for some people, just not a majority.

The game feels random in a lot of ways and at the same time not really varied despite the impressive choice of units.

This game is way less poker than every other autobattler, like tft. IMO unless there is some missing autobattler is the most chess like autobattler on the market.