DevLog Update: Sleeker Contracts in the Works

Greetings, mech commanders! This past week I’ve been hard at work rebuilding key UI systems for MetalMercs in Godot. The MechBay is now functional again—you can buy, sell, and repair your units—and the Pilot Lounge is up in a basic form, letting you recruit and dismiss pilots as needed. The Mod Bay is on my list, though it may not be ready in time for the first early supporter Godot demo (which hopefully arriving in the next few weeks).

The biggest overhaul so far has been the mission contract interface, and I'm excited to share some of the improvements coming your way.

One of the real benefits of this port has been the chance to revisit core systems and rethink how they could be better. I’ve always loved the negotiating of contracts, but in practice the old/current system was a bit clunky. And missions themselves also feel a little too simple for what I’ve always envisioned. I’ve long wanted something with more flavor—something closer to the vibes of MechCommander—and this rebuild is finally giving me that opportunity.

Here’s what’s changing:

• Contracts themes will now be more coherent and with objective types that match the themes. Contracts won’t just be a series random mission—you’ll get a style of operation with meaningful variation. Contracts like salvage operations, territory seizures, and guerilla operations will carry missions that fit that theme and require different styles of play.

• Negotiation is staying in, but I’m streamlining it. The goal is to make it quicker and easier to find the right balance of risk and reward without getting bogged down clicking on too many parameters. Currently there are so many little parameters you can click on every contract and honestly, how many people are micromanaging every negotiation? I think simplifying this a bit would be helpful and so I'm leaning towards a pay and salvage scale where you negotiate advance vs final pay and salvage rights (how many choices you get) vs salvage tokens (how much salvage you can purchase).

• Advance Pay currently there's no real reason to take advance pay over fulfillment payment, and thinking on this I had an idea... What if, advance pay pays more! For example, maxing out advance pay grants 4500k (with no fulfillment pay) but going the other route, with no advance pay grants 3000k in fulfillment pay. Now taking a large advance will get you more cash, period. But, to give you some reason to be wary of advance pay, missions now carry a non-completion penalty that increases as you take more advance pay. Hence, if you fail the mission, you’ll owe the advance plus interest. That means more risk—and potentially, more reward.

• Contract modifiers less you think my goal is to make contracts too simple, one other thing I'd like to add to make contracts more interest are modifiers. For instance, some missions may offer bonuses like bounties per kill, while others may penalize you for collateral damage or reward careful objective completion.

The overall goal is not just to port the old systems into Godot, but to make smart improvements along the way—refining what worked, fixing what was clunky, and evolving toward the game I’ve always wanted MetalMercs to be.

If you read this far—kudos, Commander! Thanks for sticking with me through development. More updates soon as we march toward the next build.