Hello MekaRiders,

After the latest update there is a bit of an annoying bug when you start the game. This doesn't affect your ability to play the game, but I do acknowledge it is indeed annoying. I am actively working to try to fix this in an upcoming update but I have no ETA for it.

Cheers,

Austin

Welcome to April Dev Update! Big changes are occuring so we'll go over them!

When I started work on MekaFighters during the MechJam of 2021, I was excited and happy to work on it. My main goal with game development is making games that people can get together and have fun with. Sadly, I don't think I reached that goal this time around. I put in a ton of work and wanted to make big things for it. I had a lot of ideas and I still do. However, my motivation is dwindling and I don't think it's fair at all for me to ask for money for the base game. Soon, I'll be transitioning the game from the $2.99USD Price Point to Free to Play. I will keep skins as paid as that is necessary at all to the game and can help me out a bit. For players who have purchased the game before the transition, PLEASE reach out to me on the e-mail (mekafightersdevs (at) gmail.com with your SteamID64 so I can verify you owned the game before the transition) and I will give you all the skins for free, it's the very least I can do as you supported me before I decided to make the swap and I'm extremely sorry for this transition, but I feel it's the best thing to do rather than keep it paid. Now onto other news!

I always want things to not be confusing so I'm changing some in-game terms. "Fire Rate" is now "Attack Cooldown" and the lower you have of it, the better. And with this new term change, are some updates as followed:

• Wendy and JICE: Lowered their attack cooldown from .35/s to .25/s
  
• Sed and SAIRO: Lowered their attack cooldown from .225/s to .155/s
  
• Nika and TERA: Lowered their attack cooldown from .3/s to .2/s
  
• Khaleed and ZHEN: Lowered their attack cooldown from .35/s to .25/s
  
• James and JK1: Lowered their attack cooldown from .35/s to .25/s
  
• Gerard and AM3: No Change
  
  • Dev Note: While we are lowering it for most Mekas, Gerard and AM3 are particularly strong already when utilizing their Active Ability (Spider's Bite) as they are intended to. We aren't making any changes to them at the moment, but will keep an eye out.

Even though my motivation is dwindling on the game, I still would like to introduce new Mekas at random times when I do get the bursts to do so. Please understand, there are no ETAs for any of these new Mekas and I will not be providing any because I have no idea when I'll get around to it.

Cheers,

Austin James

Hello MekaRiders,

Welcome to the April 2022 Game Update. As announced in the April 2022 Dev Update, the game is transitioning to be free to play, but skins will still be paid for. This will be taking effect within the next 2 Weeks (aiming for April 19th, 2022).

Now onto what's changed:

• Wendy and JICE: Lowered their attack cooldown from .35/s to .25/s
  
• Sed and SAIRO: Lowered their attack cooldown from .225/s to .155/s
  
• Nika and TERA: Lowered their attack cooldown from .3/s to .2/s
  
• Khaleed and ZHEN: Lowered their attack cooldown from .35/s to .25/s
  
• James and JK1: Lowered their attack cooldown from .35/s to .25/s
  
• Gerard and AM3: No Change
  
  • Dev Note: While we are lowering it for most Mekas, Gerard and AM3 are particularly strong already when utilizing their Active Ability (Spider's Bite) as they are intended to. We aren't making any changes to them at the moment, but will keep an eye out.

• Integrated various features with Epic Online Services (Server Browser, Game Hosting)
  
• Added Linux/SteamOS/Proton Support Natively.
  
• Removed the Roadmap Button from the Game Menu

• Fixed an issue where sometimes server travelling failed due to mismatch of travelling URLS.
  
• Fixed an issue where the login text would not change when various operations were occurring.

Hello MekaRiders!

As announced earlier in the January 2022 Dev Update, MekaFighters is getting some big changes in a small update to the game. We recommend you read the dev update linked to know why these changes are occurring, but onto the patch!

• All Characters and their base skins are now available for free, forever, for anyone.
  
• Removed the Shop and Shop Features such as: Character Shop, Skin Shop, Redemption Shop, and Microtransactions from in the game. All skins can now be purchased on the Steam Store as DLC.
  
• Added map previews for when you're selecting a map to play on.
  
• Private Games are soon going to be replaced by Custom Games. Please read on later to learn more about Custom Games. For now, Private/Custom games have been disabled.
  
• Meka Information (under Meka Select) now includes various character statistics such as health, power, damage, and more.
  
• James and JK1, the Dawning Shadows and Gerard and AM3, the Widowmakers are now added to the login screen rotation.

• Sed and SAIRO, the Shadow Fighters
  
  • Active: Shadow Seeker - Reduced the invisibility opacity from .1 to .08
• Nika and TERA, the Earth Users
  
  • Health Regen - Increased from 15 to 30.
    
  • Health Regen Tick Amount - Decreased from 5s to 2.5s
    
  • Active: Force of Earth - Now deals a minimum of 350 damage from 250.
    
  • Dev Notes: Nika and TERA are supposed to embody being one with the earth and therefore should be receiving more attention from it. These are some small changes, that give a big impact to it and further show they are earth users.

• Playfab
  Playfab has been removed as the backend in this update which is why a lot of these changes are occuring. Most of Playfab's code is phased out at this point and we're back to the barebones system I had in-place before attempting to make it a live-service game.

• Custom Games
  Custom games are a new way to play MekaFighters, create a session with some customized options to make a better gameplay experience and best of all, create password-protected games and play in private sessions with your friends.
  
  
• Server Browser
  With Custom Games also comes in a server browser! Search for live-sessions and join them with a click of a button, games that require a password will present you with a prompt so you better know it!
  
  
• Tutorial
  While MekaFighters is a very simple game, I still feel the need to introduce something to let new players of the game know what they're getting into.

This is a small update with big changes that have been in the works for a bit. Hopefully I'll be able to work hard enough and get another character out soon, I can't wait to show what I'm doing.

Cheers,

Austin James

It's been quite a while since the last update and I'm sorry about that. Getting caught in a mix of various things whilst working on other various things; but enough of wasting time let's get to it! TLDR at the bottom!

From here on out, I'm changing the way you unlock characters. They'll be absolutely free, for everyone. Whilst I had originally had the idea of going like "Apex Legends", "League of Legends", and other various titles of just playing and then you earning enough currency to unlock them as a sense of progression; it became devalued when players could just unlock everything by buying MekaTokens to unlock things easily.

This is a bit of a heavy pickle and I'm always working to give the most for as little as possible. I'm removing these and moving them over to a DLC System using Steam. This will take some time to go through for every skin but the good news is that the prices will be the same; but with region-based pricing through Steam. This also gives me an opportunity to reduce the overall workload I go through for every Microtransaction. MekaTokens, Skins, and Microtransactions are being disabled on 1/30/2022 at 3:30PM CST.

What I thought would be a good idea as a sense of progression and being able to unlock things have lead me to a lot of headaches whilst doing verification and such on the backend. I'll be removing these in a future update as most things will just be on Steam's side. You will be unable to Purchase MekaTokens, but can still earn them in your games for the time being.

While these have been extremely slow as of recently, I am planning (with February being the first month) to release about 1 Update a Month (depending on the severity of various things) to bring a workload off of myself instead of wanting to do updates every 2 weeks. I am just one person in the end and wanting to bring a very extreme amount of updates may not be for the better.

Player accounts will be changing and you will no longer have an account level attached to it as the game is moving from the live-service model.

TLDR: Things are changing. Every character is going to be free in the next update, MekaTokens won't be usable anymore, Microtransactions are being disabled, and content updates will be every Month instead of every 2 weeks.


That's all for this update, very big changes in a small update. Expect this patch regarding all this information to drop sometime in February. I'm not committing to an exact date, because I wouldn't want to disappoint.

Thanks for sticking with me,

Austin James

Hello MekaRiders!

It's been a bit since the last update, but fret not development is progression well! Life can sometimes throw whammies at you, but you need to push forward! I've been doing other things as well, but this is about MekaFighters not anything else so let's get into the dev blog!
Onboarding - A new thing with most games is introducing players to the game via tutorials and granting them items based off of that and that's what I'll be doing next! When a new player launches the game, they will now be met with a text-based tutorial and upon completion will be given a choice to choose between 3 Mekas as a reward for completing it. Sadly, this will only be for new accounts/players who have not yet completed it and will not be offered for pre-existing accounts.

Ongoing Meka Development - New Mekas are on the horizon. Along with the daring bombardier, robot and meka combo, and the demonic force attempting to take over the world in a custom-Meka unit are some new ones to come along. Along with those are a friend who just wants to help out, an adrenaline junky consumed with going for exciting plays, a hunter who sees the glory in everything, and last but not least: a combo who want to cleanse the world to bring justice everywhere.

Engine Changes - Despite the Unreal Engine being extremely robust, I do make changes to it from time to time to better support MekaFighters and it's code structure to keep it up. However, some things don't go as planned and things break and this is one of those times. There were some issues with the latest changes I've made and now I'm having to fix even more parts of the engine than what I had previously wanted, but fret not! Things are moving along smoothly with the fixes but as of now I am unable to build any new patches for the game until those issues are fixed up.

That's just about it for this update, pretty small compared to others and I'm trying to work as fast as I can to make sure the Engine is up to speed.

Cheers,

Austin James

Hello MekaRiders!

Welcome to the Hallowing Nights Patch, it's not really an event, but here's an update on the "Halloween Event". I wasn't able to reach my goal of implement the new system where you can earn every event skin for free and I apologize for that. But, the price of the "Hallowing Nights Skins" will be permanently reduced in terms of price, but rarity will stay the same. Rarity price would be 1400 MekaTokens (with event discount included), but instead will be at the Uncommon Rarity price of 600 MekaTokens for each skin. If you buy the bundle of the 3 New Skins, it will be discounted and only be 1200 MekaTokens, rather than 1800 MekaTokens. The skins are: Halloween Racer Wendy and JICE, Halloween Snow Patrol Nika and TERA, and Halloween Squid Gerard and AM3. Once again, I'm sorry I wasn't able to hit my goal this time around. Hopefully by the upcoming holidays, the new systems will be in for event skins to be earned completely for free. (Note: There is currently a bug with the new skins bundle system. The bundle is supposed to get disabled if you buy a skin standalone, but currently it doesn't and stays enabled. Sorry about that!)

Now onto what's in this patch!

• Introduced new SFX for various abilities.
  
• Introduced new SFX for abilities coming off of cooldown.
  
• Introduced new SFX for when attempting to use an ability that is on cooldown.
  
• Introduced a new Character Balance Database. This database was made purely because of the way that Mekas and Skins are made. For those who aren't aware - each Meka that is made, and it's skins, are new character blueprints entirely. This was starting to become tedious when deciding to do balance changes and would require me to go into every blueprints and change things. This database relieves some of the load off of me, but there is still some work for them and I'm fine with this. Here's a little look on the database:
• Began working on controller/gamepad support so that you can play the game with just a controller from launching the game. (This is in preparation for steam deck support and supporting controllers in general). Please note: this is highly work in progress and is nowhere near completion, but I did set up the basics and you can play with it kind of.
  
• Added support to the redemption system to be able to get skins. Previously, this used to only be able to grant MekaTokens.

• Fixed an issue where Paradiso's background music would not play after entering the map.
  
• Fixed an issue where Gerard and AM3 were not scaled properly when changing skins.
  
• Fixed an issue where when changing skins as Gerard and AM3 they were using the wrong animations.
  
• Fixed an issue in the skin selector menu where the rarity colors were not being used on the skin borders.

Thanks for sticking with me and see you on the fields! Cheers,

Austin James

Hey MekaRiders, it's been quite a while!

With my time away for 1 month due to me being affected by Ida (I had no power for that duration) and then another month without internet, I've tried to get a lot accomplished in that time period. I think I did okay for the most part, but I was also working on other things. Without further ado, let's get into it.


James and JK1, the Dawning Shadows
Abilities:

• Innate - Intuitive Domain: Upon going into Dark Barrier, increase your total stats for the duration that Dark Barrier is active.
  
• Active - Dark Barrier: James and JK1 place a Barrier in an small area that nothing can leave for 10 seconds. Enemies in this area are forced to fight their way out of it. If they deal 30% of the person’s casting this health, the barrier is destroyed immediately. James and JK1 can recast this ability with the same button that they used to activate it, in order end Dark Barrier early. If James and JK1 die while casting this, the Barrier will stay up until the time runs out.

Gerard and AM3, the Widowmakers
Abilities:

• Innate - Kiss Of Death/Spider's Agility:
  
  • Kiss Of Death: Greatly reduces the cooldown of Spider's Bite, but each subsequent use within 12 seconds will increase the amount of Power needed by 55% each use.
    
  • Spider's Agility: Gerard and AM3 jump higher and move quicker.
• Active - Spider's Bite: Gerard and AM3 shoot a venomous line, hitting the first Meka and damaging it. The damage is based on 12% of the target's max health and 12% of your missing health.

Paradiso, Tropics - An island known simply to the world as, “The Island of Paradise”. What secrets does it hold that the world has yet to find?

Different skins will now have different rarities and the prices associated with them will vary. The list below will also be on a dedicated button in-game.

• Common - 300 MekaTokens
  
• Uncommon - 600 MekaTokens
  
• Rare - 1200 MekaTokens
  
• Very Rare - 1500 MekaTokens
  
• Ultra Rare - 1800 MekaTokens
  
• ICONIC (Limited Edition Skins)- 2100 MekaTokens
  
• Event Skins - 1800 Tokens (with a discount while that event is ongoing!)
  
• LEGENDARY Skins - 2400 MekaTokens.

That is the current list we are going with, but please note this is all subject to change as I finalize everything in place.

Loading Screens now have randomized tips, some of which can help you out with the way some Mekas work or just give some lore about Mekas and the game as you wait to get into your next match.

The login screen now is animated, rotating around the Mekas that are visible instead of being static. Also, it now features a randomizing rotation of the Mekas you see on the Login Screen. Note: You may see the same Meka duplicated as that's how the system works.

In future builds, we'll be natively supporting Linux since Easy Anti-Cheat now supports Linux and Proton. This will also serve as a base to help out with Steam Deck support in the future rather than using Proton for it.

BUG FIXES:

• Fixed an issue where the Game Server Status would not update properly in-game.

Cheers and see you soon!

Austin James

Hello MekaRiders! After a very long time of not updating, due to me being severely impacted by Hurricane Ida and causing my power to go out for over 22 days I'm back! I'm still without internet and doing a lot of things with my phone's hotspot (such as this update), but won't be able to push updates until my service provider is able to restore internet services at my place! I'm also working on some new things (that is not MekaFighters) that I hope will be fun when I'm able to show them off; so stay tuned for that!

Let's go over some things. This update will consist of: Events, Skin Changes (and new types!), New Mekas, and New Gamemodes. Let's get started!

In my earlier plans (before Hurricane Ida introduced all these issues) I had wanted to plan a Halloween "event" where you could earn free skins by just playing the game, but if you didn't want to play you could simply just purchase them at a "Event Price" which would be hugely discounted. Sadly, this more than likely won't be able to happen this year for Halloween, but I would like to plan something for the approaching Holiday season with the same style: you can earn the event skins just by playing and not paying. But there will be non-holiday related events such as one I'm working on called Light vs. Dark: A darkness is consuming everything and everyone... MekaFighters and their MekaRiders are being consumed, can you banish the darkness away and free their shackled souls? This event would also bring in the first true skinline which is Light Vs. Dark and features Light Protectors against Darkness Servants!

On the subject of skins, I'll be introducing something new in a new update when I push the next update: Skin Rarities. These rarities are in place to let you know the "quality" of the skin. The list goes as followed (please note, as of 10/04/2021 that 300 MekaTokens equal $1 USD):

• Common - 300 MekaTokens
  
• Uncommon - 600 MekaTokens
  
• Rare - 1200 MekaTokens
  
• Very Rare - 1500 MekaTokens
  
• Ultra Rare - 1800 MekaTokens
  
• ICONIC (Limited Edition, we'll get to these in a bit) - 2100 MekaTokens
  
• Event Skins - 1800 Tokens (with a discount while that event is ongoing!)
  
• LEGENDARY Skins (more on these later) - 2400 MekaTokens.

That is the current list we are going with, but please note this is all subject to change as I finalize everything in place.

These are skins which will be considered "limited edition" (it's in quotes for a reason) where you can buy these while they are available and they won't come back for a while! Think of it as a "Legacy" type of skin where they only show up once a year. These skins will only be available for a Meka after their release for a certain time and they disappear until the game's anniversary event comes up (unless that Meka and it's skin was released less than 5 months before the anniversary). This won't be introduced right now, but in a future update a new Meka will follow this system and any Mekas released before this was introduced will receive a the ICONIC Skin that is available year-round.

These are skins which are either "crossovers" or have new animations, VFX, SFX, and more attached to them which means tons more work is being put into them than other skins. There are a couple of these in the works currently and hopefully you'll think they're cool!

As I've said time and time again please remember: All skins and characters are purchased with MekaTokens and you earn those just by playing the game, no need to purchase anything EVER.

From Gerard and AM3 - The Widowmakers, I'll be changing the way I make recolors for the Mekas. Usually, I made a set color in Blender and then in-engine I would update and essentially just "overlay" the other colors ontop which made some weird things. The change here is that I'll be keeping the materials the color White in Blender and then in-engine just color them. This should allow me to make better Meka Base Colors and Recolors. As for new skins, they will be made ontop of the UVS of the Mekas and made like that and not with this new method.

There are some new Mekas in the works besides the ones listed on the roadmap, but no worries I'll be adding them slowly to it! Coming soon is a bombastic and daring bombardier that will come to steal the show, a robot merging itself with a Meka Unit to become the best Meka, and a demonic force making itself a Meka Unit after being devastated by one to take over the world. Besides these, there are even more and some really cool things are planned with them and I can't wait to show them!

As with the "planned" events, the plans for introducing new gamemodes are being pushed back. For those who don't know: I was working on systems to support 3v3s and bring that to the game. 3v3s are where 6 total players in teams of threes face off against each other and a new team-oriented Meka was going to be introduced. Those are both being delayed but they'll still be coming! The other gamemodes that were planned, Capture and Protect, are also being delayed. Quick rundown on these - Capture: Capture various points located on the map and gain more points than the other team before time runs out. Protect: 6 Players gather in teams of threes where one side has to defend citizens from the attack and others have to try to defeat the defending Mekas and citizens to gain control. Those were planned to come after 3v3s, but will be delayed for some time.

Login Screen Changes: Previously, what used to just be a static level with the Mekas frozen in place will now change to randomly choose 2 Mekas to be displayed and the Camera will rotate over them slowly. The Mekas will still be frozen, but I want to make it more dynamic. In the future (and during events) I hope to have it even more animated to make it feel alive. I'll be making new systems and animations specifically for this to make it better.

Please note, there is no planned ETA for when I will be updating the game next as I need internet services before I'm able to that. Apologies for the delays!

Cheers,

Austin James