Summary of Engine Room Chat with Bearlike - EP 5

Hi all, here's the summary from the latest Engine Room Chat with Bearlike.

If you missed it, here's the video: https://youtu.be/4QUJEkMzP7Y

HOUND

  • Hound is the first new chaff unit in seven years. The idea was conceived approximately eight months ago.
  • The original concept for the Hound was to create another 100-supply chaff clear unit. However, to differentiate it from the Arclight, they decided to create a 5-unit squad chaff unit.
  • Besides the Hound, another high-damage chaff unit is currently under development.
  • The design of the Hound began with shotguns, but the actual body design came much later. Although the designer prefers cats, the rest of the company agreed that dogs are superior.
  • Bearlike mentioned there might be a bear-themed skin for the Rhino in the future.
  • Many skins are in development, some with unique FX, but they're not ready at the moment.
  • Bearlike enjoys environmental interactions such as water + electricity and may add more of these in the future.
  • Light unit targeting technology was removed because Hounds tend to get stuck on larger units, which nullifies the technology's usefulness. The team doesn't want to give Hound the ability to switch targets after locking on.

Free Unit Unlocks

  • Bearlike is pleasantly surprised that removing the early unlocking costs for some units feels well-balanced, and the community response has been generally positive.
  • Bearlike believes this change provides players with more creative options in early rounds, making the game more interesting overall.
  • Rhino and Hacker still have unlock costs because they're too situational. The team plans to overhaul these units in the future.
  • Air units retain their unlock costs as they can be easily exploited for cheese strategies.
  • Sabertooth specialists will be reworked soon to add more value.

FFA

  • FFA unit drop was introduced to make the FFA mode more similar to games like TFT or DOTA Autochess, where players must work with what they're given.
  • FFA is designed to be more of a party game, while 1v1 and 2v2 are more competitive.
  • The new FFA bounty system, where killing the top player's units gains resources, encourages players to think beyond simply building the best army. This is an intentional design choice.
  • The remaining FFA changes focus on helping players pivot more easily from late-game compositions.
  • Spectator improvements for FFA and 2v2 modes are planned for the future.
  • Bearlike teased a potential transformative technology for the Vulcan: Ice Vulcan. The team is still developing this idea.

Community Questions

  • Some larger mechs have pilots, while smaller ones don't. Bearlike is working on establishing ground rules for the lore.
  • Bearlike hinted that non-mechanical units might appear in-game during Season 4.
  • The team previously considered terrain features like high grounds and chokepoints but decided against implementation because controlling unit movement in an autobattler makes it difficult to make them impactful enough.
  • Bearlike welcomes suggestions for economy-based specialists.
  • Bearlike anticipates that once all base units are introduced (expected by the end of Season 4), a unit rotation mechanism will be implemented each season.
  • Regarding new technologies, the focus will shift to them AFTER completing the base unit roster by the end of S4.
  • Bearlike mentioned working on a 1v1 map where towers may be positioned asymmetrically.