Many thanks to all of the players who have been sharing information with us about situations where they have not been able to play due to latency (ping) estimations when they really should have pretty good internet. This only affects a subset of players, so there is a good chance this update is not relevant to you, but it might be. Out of these groups:

• Players who can use Matchmaking fine already
  
• Players who cannot use Matchmaking, but do have decent internet
  
• Players who cannot use Matchmaking, and don't have decent internet

This update is for the middle set. Definitely let us know if this helped you or not!

Fixes also went in for not selecting the correct mode/map when directly inviting someone to play with.

Minor bugfix and quality of life improvements patch. Something to watch out for is if you invite people into a group and then try to play games, you may not have common servers with them. This could lead to a black screen when loading which never clears, because both players can't get on the same server. Try to verify you have common servers if directly inviting people to play with. If you use Matchmaking, this shouldn't be an issue--defifnitely let us know if it happens when using the Matchmaking flow!

• resume dropping crates besides Strike Crate
  
• rename Void Crate to Void Plans Crate
  
• start dropping Void Walker Crate again (very low chance)
  
• changes to language around Locked Diamonds to be "Bonus"
  
• hide Bonus Diamonds until level 8 and more than 800 saved

• fix friend invite on click not offering the accept option
  
• prevent mapmode from switching in custom games
  
• don't clear your state when AFK if doing solo stuff
  
• remove random Diamond sparkle shower pfx in middle of town

Continuing the work on making Custom Games easy to setup, easy to browse and join. Definitely still bugs we are working out, especially how to configure what bots go where and move people around between teams but already we see people eager to use it.

Look for the half buried structure in the lower right area of town for now. Once we get it working more reliably we'll move it front and center.

Semi-related is Custom Maps! Some players didn't even know you could make and upload custom maps. We want to make sure everyone can discover and play these now, which is why the Custom Games and browsing will be so important.

We have new queues for Matchmaking, both on the PvE side and PvP. While these should mostly work the same as they have in the past, a key difference is it is easier to change what your group wants to do. If you start by inviting a friend directly, or get matched with them, you can change your minds and play a different mode or game type.

That sounds minor, but the reason we did this is to lay the groundwork for Custom Games! Yes we are bringing back truly custom games and all the options from years ago. Yes, this also means the ability to browse Custom games, and play user made maps.

For what is new it depends if you have been keeping up with the Reboot or not. The goal of Reboot is to bring the best parts of AirMech Arena (the console version) and AirMech Wastelands (the paid game) into the F2P version of AirMech--known going forward as just AirMech. AirMech Strike was extremely PvP focused, so by dropping the second name we hope it is clear this is the one true AirMech going forward.

Patchnotes are posted ingame, and we'll try to also post them here but as minor updates.

It's a been a long time coming, but we are ready to more widely test the biggest update to AirMech in years. Consider this the "Director's Cut" of the game, taking our favorite things from AirMech Arena, combining that with parts of AirMech Wastelands, and just going back to simpler more fun gameplay.

Survival and Coop are back and front and center. We have the basics of a Town area to meet other players and even explore outside. Parts are back, and drop by chance from any enemies, not just at the end of games.

We'll talk more about this later giving a full rundown of what is in this new version and what is coming--if we survive 24 hours. We may revert back to the older Strike build if things don't go smoothly.

This is a PvP live-balance update aimed at addressing a few sore spots and shifting some units closer toward their intended roles. An additional live-balance update is expected to follow after some time for players to adjust. Join us on Discord to discuss the balance changes: https://discord.gg/AirMech

- Bomber guns piercing increased from 50 to 55
- Bomber melee damage increased from 161 to 166
- Bomber armor decreased from 80 to 75
- Angel armor piercing increased from 50 to 55
- Striker carry capacity decreased from 2300 to 2100
- Warthog HP decreased from 1900 to 1800
- Warthog air DPS decreased from 460 to 440
- Warthog ground DPS increased from 230 to 240
- Neo armor decreased from 75 to 70
- Morty armor piercing increased from 40 to 50
- Morty death blast minimum range increased from 1.8 to 2.5
- Flamer armor piercing increased from 15 to 20
- Assassin move speed increased from 5 to 6
- Sergeant move speed decreased from 3.5 to 3.0
- Sergeant armor decreased from 40 to 30
- Butcher carry weight increased from 550 to 700
- Necro build time increased from 3.5 to 6.0
- Arty full-blast damage range increased from 1.5 to 2.5
- Arty blast damage increased from 100 to 120
- Arty armor decreased from 70 to 45
- Arty build cost increased from 4400 to 5400
- Archy full-blast damage range increased from 2.0 to 2.5
- Archy min-blast damage range decreased from 6.0 to 4.0
- Archy blast damage decreased from 80 to 70
- Archy direct damage increased from 130 to 150
- Archy armor decreased from 70 to 45
- Archy build cost increased from 4400 to 5400
- Joker HP increased from 600 to 700
- Joker armor decreased from 30 to 25
- Rebel armor decreased from 65 to 55
- Jackal armor decreased from 50 to 45
- Armadillo armor piercing decreased from 60 to 50
- Gemini aim rotation speed increased from 105 to 115
- Grinder HP decreased from 2750 to 2500
- Grinder armor decreased from 90 to 70
- Grinder build cost decreased from 13500 to 10500
- Hero build cost decreased from 4500 to 3500
- Hero HP increased from 1100 to 1250
- T99 build time decreased from 11.0 to 10.0
- T99 upkeep decreased from 3 to 2
- T45 shot damage decreased from 50 to 40
- T45 fire delay decreased from 0.25 to 0.2
- T45 sustained fire time increased from 1.0 to 1.2
- Gatty damage reduction vs outposts increased from 25% to 55%
- HAAT build cost decreased from 7300 to 6500
- Gorgon HP decreased from 3500 to 3200
- Gorgon armor piercing increased from 35 to 60
- Gorgon shot damage decreased from 35 to 25
- Stasis Mine build cost decreased from 1200 to 1000
- Heavy Mine carry weight increased from 750 to 1200
- Heave Mine build cost increased from 500 to 1000
- Heavy Mine shot damage increased from 1050 to 1300
- Generator build cost increased from 2800 to 3000
- Generator build time increased from 8.0 to 9.5

Balance, bugfixes and a few new skulls. There are some larger Strike features in development, including a rework to the team queuing systems and being in game together while looking for a group. Some of those changes were available for preview in the last few Canary builds, but need significantly more work, so for this update they are disabled while we work out the bugs.

• Make faction discord links clickable
  
• Adding Void Skull
  
• Adding Prismatic Skull
  
• Adding Black Diamond Skull
  
• Adding Black Diamond Dice Pet
  
• Adding Book Recipe Icon
  
• Adding Helmet Recipe Icon
  
• Update surrender timer clock: 20s -> 10s
  
• Add new VIP Shop Ticket icon
  
• Add support for fuel consumption on usage of Helix grenades ability and guided airmode missiles
  
• Add support for energy use on Blade Guardian hits
  
• Add info tab log on crate open events
  
• Add hp and energy drain back to Osprey on it's drain beam ability usage
  
• Add counts to market items, automatic listing for things with multiples

• Don't issue blade guardian damage if AirMech doesn't have enough energy for the hit
  
• Don't allow Angel's sniper stasis ability to charge up more than 1 shot
  
• Jumper HP decreased from 300 to 225
  
• Jumper armor decreased from 35 to 25
  
• Gorgon attack range decreased from 22 to 17
  
• Bomber melee armor piercing increased from 30 to 50
  
• AirMech Boost energy use increased from 1.0 to 2.5
  
• AirMech Boost cooldown increased from 0.21 to 0.42

• Update "LobbyTransformPanel" position if in a 3v3 custom lobby
  
• Fix version number size when language set to Chinese
  
• Fix rarity color for mini inspect dialog
  
• Fix player status bars not showing up in game
  
• Fix name when inspecting a bundle item
  
• Fix custom game ready/start
  
• Fix "LobbyTransformPanel" RTT in practice lobby mode
  
• Clear "try on" head when changing team colors
  
• Some layout fixes for faction chat ui
  
• Potential fix for stuck unit recycling state
  
• Fix material for "Beta Bomber"
  
• Fix display on minimap of neutral outposts to be grey
  
• Fix discord link display in faction ui
  
• Fix collision on some mountain tiles
  
• Add Fall Crate to Crates Inventory Set

We're rolling out some matching and ranking changes which go along with the new Season which just ended, this was part of some changes and improvements we are making to matchmaking and we wanted to have a clean break. We're currently debating doing 2 or 3 months for Seasons, and I'm personally leaning toward 3 so it can match the "seasons".

We wanted to intoduce a new lower priced way for new players to get VIP status, as the previous Starter Pack has a lot of currency in it but almost has too much if you are not sure what you need. Combined with the many requests to have another way to get the Nexus Warthog , and the Warthog being a new player favorite, this seemed like a great pacakge. So for $5 (USD, local currency may change) you get the Nexus Warthog (which means you can use Warthog), 1000 Diamonds, lifetime Silver VIP, and Boosts. Plus it doesn't overlap with the old Starter Pack, so anyone can pick it up and it's still a great piece of kit.

Lots of bug fixes and getting things in place for our new Tournament system, Diamond Roll improvements, etc. Read all about it below!

• Renaming "Void Crate" to "Void Plans Crate"
• Jammer move speed increased from 3 to 6
• New Starter Pack with Nexus Warthog and 1000 Diamonds
• Rename old Starter Pack to Strike Pack , nothing else changed
• Adding Black Diamond Roll effects
• Show total units next to upkeep on spectator hud
• Show player credits on spectator hud instead of ping
• make minimized chat window take the same number of characters as the big one, should always be the same
• let everyone autoroll in diamond raffles if they are in game and not AFK
• don't allow q-heal/repair to start while the AirMech is transforming
• Added Void Shot Tracers to Void Collection Set
• Updates/bugfixes to Touranment system
• Show player status bars while in the Pit
• Temporarily remove player count, as it was wrong (didn't refresh right, didn't show players per game type)

• Fixing transition from black -> normal rolls for materials and diamond lobby panel
• Fixing overlap on locked cosmetic hover for new craftable icon AM-10934
• Fixed a spot where units could be dropped in the trees on Duel
• Fixed a spot where infantry could be dropped in the rocks on Storm
• Fix right clicking on the bracket button to load the tournament editor (AM-10822)
• Fix ready button for unfair teams in lobby (AM-10828)
• Fix positioning for "InLobbyMenuPowerButton" (AM-10916)
• Fix overlapping text in tournament brackets ui (AM-10783)
• Fix Honor tooltip display (AM-10924)
• Fix Honor badge messages not displaying when clicking on them in Chat
• Fix "TournamentMasterRefresh" symbol not getting set when viewing the tournament list
• Fix "no show" red bar for winners in tournament brackets ui
• Don't show tournament "Go" button if not active
• Don't allow you to spectate a no-show match and update tooltip to match
• Don't allow players to change loadouts while playing a challenge map (AM-10921)
• Blocked units from being dropped on cliff edges behind the fortress on Twin Peaks
• potential bug fix for Neo EMP triggering cooldown but not EMP attack/effect on triggering close to transform transition
• Fix honor badge trailing space (AM-10917)
• fix angel sniper stasis shot ability not triggering correctly on F3/keyboard activation
• Don't toggle chat box if pressing enter while writing a mail message (AM-10835)
• Clear mini inspect dialog when you try to market list something (AM-10827)
• another potential fix for fog display issue when using spectator freecamera
• add terrain height tracking on Bomber Mantis strike projectile to improve it's usability on sloped terrain
• hide XP tip on player card

Big balance and bugfix patch! Along with the ongoing improvements below, initial features are in place for running our automated tournaments, and testing will begin this week. In fact, we have already run a few small tests, logged bugs, and will be making smaller incremental patches that focus on getting this brand new system working well.

• remove blast damage from Helix Rockets in Strike
  
• adding welcome panel back to lobby
  
• Adding red void tracer effects
  
• adding Void Eagle nanoforge formula
  
• Improved Chinese localizations
  
• fix some cases where part gambling might not return an item
  
• reworking Helix homing missile fire in air (was stacking too many missiles)
  
• hide seller name in player market items unless focused
  
• Updating DeepSea Osprey description text
  
• update helix rocket blast damages
  
• don't draw fortress line state (area restriction) when in free camera mode
  
• Display sg banned message if you're in a group and get banned (AM-10576)
  
• Color tweaks to VoidTracers and adding gameTime to stop anims in pause
  
• adding RocketsLifespan setting for helix
  
• Adding purple, green and blue versions of void tracers
  
• adding airmech dmg -> airmech ground/air mult dps scalars
  
• Adding "noScrap" flag to PetTawnyEagle and VoidEagle, as part of changes for AM-10581
  
• Added dialog box message for when you're sg banned and try to create/join a group (AM-10577)
  
• Add promos for void tracers
  
• Add permanent sg ban message (AM-10577)
  
• Add option to disable mention sound (AM-10617)
  
• Add right click on market item to list all of that type
  
• Add a list on the side of sell UI that shows current prices of item on market (AM-10573)
  
• Moved rank/season numbers into actual leaderboards ui
  
• Hide rank info when in "Faction Rank Wins"
  
• Tweak "Faction Rank Wins" tab width in rankings menu
  
• Remove "Hammer Throw Enabled" text from ABHammerThrow ability tool tip (AM-10318)
  
• Additional cleanup of Ability tool tip text (Google translate non-sense)
  
• reenable game balance sheet parsing in AMS

• Gangster HP decreased from 1600 to 1375
  
• Gangster upkeep increased from 1 to 2
  
• clean warthogs' dmg increase at range ranges, since they will cause extra work for no effect now
  
• set AirMechGndMultDPS to 1.15 for all mechs except for warthog, which is still just 1.0
  
• buffer paladin hammer base damage 60->80 to compensate for fixing [type]MultDPS application
  
• buff missile homing damage (50->100) to make up for fire count change (max charge of 1 projectile)
  
• adjust base helix fire rate periods for missiles
• 1 -> 1.2 s for grenades, 0.666 -> 0.75s for rockets
  
• council balance update of: RocketsDamage = 142.5, 71.25, 47.5, 35.625, 28.5
  
• reworking Helix ground rockets damage formula to be more consistent with damage output prior to autofire changes
  
• reduce helix ground rockets range
• equal to Bomber Mantis strike now
  
• helix guided missile buf
• +25% base damage, +18% missile speed, with the same range
  
• make warthog and neo melee attack damage subject to target MultDPS modifiers
  
• buff warthog and neo melee to compensate for MultDPS against units (so the effective damage should be the same)
  
• buff striker and bomber melee to compensate for MultDPS against units (so the effective damage should be the same as it was before)
  
• give warthog it's own melee projectile type to differentiate from a2g for stats and target calculation checks

• Set "TournamentMasterRefresh" symbol when tournament list is shown (AM-10596)
  
• Hide "BracketsButton" when the daily rewards menu is loaded
  
• Fix wrong map being selected if you lose/quit out of a practice map
  
• Fix up display of qualifying/round start and end times in tournament list ui
  
• Fix spectator tournament title/subtitle getting cut off (AM-10583)
  
• Fix up display of countdown timer in spectator lobby (AM-10583)
  
• Fix right click on shop items (AM-10645)
  
• Fix overlapping mode labels in lobby (AM-10641)
  
• Fix mode when changing custom room from 1v1/3v3 to 2v2(AM-10643)
  
• Fix "LobbyMenuReady" menu position for spectator lobby (AM-10584)
  
• Fix reclaimable body destruction piece for Gangster/Jackal (AM-10595)
  
• Fix horns on Blue Skull pet (AM-10619)
  
• Fix crash when deploying a unit without a fort/outpost (AM-10193)
  
• Update display of rank to show 1v1/2v2 based on what rankings tab you're in
  
• Fixup naming of Bomber Variants set
  
• fix target damage scaling for Airmech ability damage output (Mantis Strike, Bombs, Power Sword, Bomber Melee)
  
• fix so 'show tooltips in game' option won't also turn off tooltips in the menus
  
• fix damage scaling to target for Paladin Hammer
  
• fix damage scaling against units for Saucer Deathray
  
• fix damage scaling against units/forts/outposts for Helix missiles and rockets
  
• Open the simple group if you kick a player while in a ranked 2v2 lobby (AM-10625)
  
• Quit out of a simple group if you kick a player or an invite is declined while in the limbo state
  
• Fix "BikeSideCar" tire z-spin (AM-10547)