We could probably stop the patchnotes right there. It feels surreal to be finally getting ready to push that button to leave Early Access on Steam. I believe we will go down in the record books as the game in Early Access the longest, and absolutely the one that had the biggest evolution and active development in that phase. Update number 266, build 73025 was pushed this morning.
During these almost 6 years, the definition of Early Access has changed. When we started, it was the only way to do an open beta as F2P was just becoming a thing way back then. And while the game has changed, we have not wiped player data, and only very rarely had any downtime. We have put a lot of effort into operating the game as if it were fully released--because it was fully released.
So why stay in Early Access? As Carbon's first game as a studio, and our first shot at F2P, we had no idea what we were doing. We know a lot more now, not sure how much of it is useful, but we immediately saw how tricky it is to find a good spot where a F2P game can survive. When we started out, the goal was simply to make a good game, and we figure the money stuff will just work out. But designing from a traditional point of view was not a great fit for F2P. The goal evolved into "make the best game you can AND try to earn enough to pay the dev team to keep working on AirMech".
We found this incredibly difficult, and in fact found the most success in partnerships to help continue to move AirMech forward. Working with Ubisoft to create AirMech Arena for consoles, then working with Oculus and Valve to bring AirMech Command to VR. Working on these projects was our way to bring resources back to the core AirMech game.
The addition of the Warzone map series to AirMech was a significant investment and a new approach to what the game would offer. More PvE content, to see how that would be liked. Feedback was very positive actually, but it further reduced the PvP player pool. We gained new players, but lost old players, and while the player population was stable we found the revenue was significantly reduced. We spent a ton of money making a lot of new content for the game which ended up killing revenue for the game. Oops.
This was the inflection point. AirMech either gets "released" at that moment, and probably never touched by us again (because we can't afford to based on what it was making), or we double down and go back to AirMech's PvP roots--in a way, AirMech 2.0. This is AirMech Strike. We gutted lobbies, groups, stripped out progression based power, every aspect was inspected and considered if it was interfering with fair and balanced PvP in any way--and removed if so.
All the things that were "removed" of course became quite a large collection of things--enough to make a game out of. The 7 Warzone maps would become the foundation of AirMech Wastelands, which is over 40 and counting, as it is still in the middle of development. Just like Strike was no longer held back by PvE, Wastelands was no longer held back by PvP, which meant we were free to go full RPG with everything becoming about leveling up and getting sweet loot. Parts are "balanced" in the same way they would be in any loot based RPG, where later missions are harder, so you need to level up, find better gear--and reset to the next heroic difficulty level if you make it all the way through. It's really exciting stuff, but I don't want to get too distracted talking about it here.
And here we are. So many things not done, yet things are in a pretty stable spot making this a great time to slip out of Early Access ahead of the next big features coming to AirMech--key among them is a new automated Tournament system. We have been working on this for a while, and it's not something we want to turn on if we have a bunch of new players flowing in, but after things calm down we will immediately start running these automated tournaments for players. It is safe to assume that in every region there will be at least one tournament a week, and we may even open up this system for player or Faction created tournaments. Prizes are setup when you create them, along with the conditions to enter, the size and mode, with built in tools to track your status and get you into your matches. I feel this is the crowning component to make AirMech fulfill its PvP promise.
Veterans, I cannot say thank you enough for your support to get us to this point. Your feedback, encouragement, and financial support have made AirMech possible. Half of the funding from AirMech has come from the players, and without that it is unlikely we would have been able to continue to spend so much time working on it. AirMech has never been in danger of being shut down--to me the danger is always that we can't put enough developers on it to make it as great as I'd like it to be. Revenue from AirMech will continue to be invested back into AirMech--and there is no limit to what I would like to improve or expand with sufficient revenue.
And to newer players, it is great to have you join us. I hope you have a good time and enjoy our community and game. We really appreciate feedback from everyone more than you realize. Either using the ingame tool, Discord, or the forums, all feedback is an equal voice here.
Without further delay....PREPARE FOR BATTLE!
-James