Happy New Year everyone! For this year we’re switching from end of month updates to beginning of the month updates. So from now look forward to updates on the first of each month! For this month’s update we have the long awaited Char’s Counterattack! Although, Char won’t be seen until next month. Instead debuting we have the Geara Doga and the Jegan as well as two related machines!
You can find the update Mech Profiles and Rules on the MechaStellar game downloads page.
In addition to these four new units we also have a huge balance update affecting Hit Points, Victory Points, and all weapons with the biggest effects are high rate of fire weapons like vulcans and machine guns. Additionally, we have some major updates to the Core Rules and Wargame rules.
These updates include a Squad system, to allow your grunts to punch above their weight class, and also a nice bonus for elite squads like the Black Tri-Stars. Several other systems were revised to accomodate this mechanic, like Tear through the Ranks, AOE, the “Tandem Fighter” upgrade. The Support ATK / DEF system was entirely retooled, based on a lot of player feedback that the measuring and pre-measuring was getting cumbersome and slowed the game down. The new Support mechanic instead gives your own unit a Support bonus to enable Armored Core style gameplay where you use missiles to apply pressure before firing your primary weapon. Support weapons can still be used to improve your allies while in a squad.
On the downside, this is a huge rebalance update and we have not finished Warships yet. We were also hoping to include a Combiner in the Super Robots update for GoLion / Voltron but we need some more time to finalize it. We’ll add a bonus Super Robot series as penance for being delayed.
Below you’ll find a summary of rules updates.
Core Rules Updates
- QoL updates for Warships. Fixed loopholes on Reinforce and other mechanics.
- Added a Squad System
- Retooled the Support weapon system
- Updated the Iron Wall pilot skill
- Made it so Boost lasts the whole Turn instead of a single attack
- Returned Counter to be an Elite option only
- Armor Saves back to 5 dice
- Finisher Saves at more than 10 dice reworked to no longer give easy access to 1000s of DMG
- Updated targeting, only Skilled and Ace ignore targeting rules, Battle-Tested still have to target closest / return fire
- Added in Elite levels to represent units that are heavily upgraded which now affects your starting Momentum
- Added a Barrier system
War Game Rules Updates
- Rearranged upgrades, many upgrades no longer increase VP.
- Elite Upgrades (i.e. Improved Barrage / Dodge etc.) that increase VP also increase Elite Level which affects starting Momentum
- Raised cap on Elite Upgrades
- Updated Events and Hazards
- Updated VP earned on game modes and secondary objectives
- Updated several pilots traits, i.e. Killer Instinct,
- Added Speed upgrade
- Added a weapon upgrade
Mecha Balance Patch
- Renamed MS Bonus to Mech P. (Performance)
- Remove the global -1 Hit on all units
- Massive rebalance to VP. Elite units and higher Frame units are worth significantly more VP.
- Massive rebalance to HP. Most units received a significant HP boost.
- Fixed errors and rebalanced Gurren Lagann and GaoGaiGar
- Made SEED Zaku and Gouf’s cheaper. Made Hizacks cheaper.
- Upgraded all Frame 5 units with +2 EQ slots
- Updated Luna Titanium, Gundanium, Phase Shift
- Made Hizacks cheaper for the forthcoming Geara Doga / Jegan update.
- Removed Support ATK / DEF from most non-E[X]plosives. Kept Support ATK / DEF for non-handheld weapons (i..e shoulder mounted minigun)
- Rebalanced Missile Pod / Salvo / Fire Support
- Allow for high rate of fire weapons like machine guns and vulcans to be above 10d10 ATK on the design side, the excess dice are converted into Hits ref. core rules.
- Rebalanced Shotguns to be DMG 100 high damage weapons
- Sniper weapons ability changed to Target any Unit | Ignore Cover / Support DEF
- Nerfed all weapons with a RF penalty (Snipers, Railguns, etc.)
- Updated Blinding Flash to be a weapon rather than a trait to make it more fair
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