Hey all you Mega Fans! We're back again with another V6C Newsletter! It's been a minute since we've had a proper one of these, so I hope you all had a great New Year and the such!

So let's get right to it this time, shall we? I only have a couple things to show you and they're surprisingly not terribly map related this go around. Instead, I want to take a look at an existing weapon in the game...



Skull Barrier has always been a very interesting weapon in MM8BDM, exclusively focusing on the defensive capabilities of the shield. Originally it just provided straight invulnerability for a period of time with it eventually being changed to being able to tank any one hit while being able to switch to any other weapon.

While this was certainly very effective, it has proven to be almost too effective. After all, there is practically never a scenario where you shouldn't use Skull Barrier if you have it, it's a free hit after all. There was some talk about how to handle this, and some very out there different ideas. But we decided to keep the gist of what Skull Barrier is, but add an actual offensive twist to it.



First of all, you might notice that Skull Man's stage has received some quality of life updates. It's nothing game changing (hence why it's not the point of this newsletter) but try to see how much you can see in this clip.

Back to the point though, Skull Barrier can now act as an offensive on contact weapon! It will still protect you from any one hit, and that one hit will still pop the shield. But if you make contact with an opponent, the shield will pop with one burst of damage surrounding the user, which turns it into something of a rush weapon.
To compensate for this change, you can no longer switch off of Skull Barrier once you have it activated.

Though there's certainly one more detail that's worth mentioning about it. You might have noticed it in that first clip but this one will show it off better.



Contact with the enemy also provides a knockback effect! There's actually also a knockback effect if the shield is popped by a projectile, but it is much smaller and much less dangerous. In the past you'd often expect to see players with Skull Barrier running away from you, but now you might want to show more concern if they're running toward you!

Now, if you're looking very, very closely in that last clip, you might notice some item pickup sitting in the background of that shot. It is very hard to make out, so let me give you a closer look.



An important part of Skull Barrier in all of its versions has been its ability to cross dangerous terrain. While it still retains that ability in its current form, the fact that you have to commit far more to it without the ability to switch off had us want to provide an alternative means to pull this off.
So, introducing Shock Guard!



Shock Guard won't protect you from any enemy projectiles like Skull Barrier, but it acts as a passive item that will protect you from any deadly map hazards! Lava, pits, you name it. It will even protect you from the likes of a Cold Man Ice Block if one were to finish you off. Though it's important to keep in mind that if the damage of the hazard isn't lethal, it won't protect you from that damage.
But it does open a number of new options with map hazards that weren't possible before...



Now there is one more thing I should address before I wrap this newsletter up, and it's the state of the buster sprites in the last two clips. If you recall, a couple of months ago we hosted a community poll looking for feedback on the idea of changing the sprites from two colors to three. I want to really thank everyone who filled out that form and especially those who gave us feedback to go with it. There was a lot of different aspects to consider when it came to this change.

Though as you can likely tell from the above clips, we have officially decided to keep the same two color style that they've previously had. There's definitely something pretty and appealing about the three color style to be sure, but for various reasons we've decided it is better for the state of the game to keep it the way it is. The tricolor sprites came into existence to better match the art style of the more detailed weapon get screens and Megaman artwork, but it just wasn't possible to keep that style AND have the busters be easily readable at the same time. There were certainly ways to add more colors to tricolor to fix that readable part, but in doing so we lost the entire point behind doing tricolor in the first place, and instead of being based on the artwork, they just turned into weirdly detailed graphics that didn't match anything.
Really, this was just one of the aspects that influenced our decision, but you all don't need an essay at this exact moment. Regardless, I do want to thank you all one more time for your feedback on the community poll, it was very very important.

Anyhow! That is all for today's newsletter! We'll see you next time for some more Mega Man action!

Hey all you Mega Fans! We're back again with another V6C Newslett- What do you MEAN they announced a new Mega Man game?!

Well, with the knowledge that our work will never be finished and the fight is never really done, let's talk about V6C some more. I don't have a super flashy update for you guys this time, just a couple more map changes; one minor, and one major. Just like the old days. My apologies for the smaller updates that we will most likely have going forward, but sometimes that's how it has to be at this point in the newsletter cycle.

Firstly, here's a map that really only got one real change, but it's a nice quality of life to have.





Gemini Man's stage has been more or less fine for quite some time, but there was something to be said about the dead end nature of the Centaur Flash spike room. So the solution was simple, make a path out of that room that leads into a new smaller outdoor area that connects to both the interior caverns and the existing exterior section. Sometimes the best way to handle a problem with a map isn't to go crazy, but just add a little extra to flesh it out, which I think is the kind of case Gemini is.

Now, for something that did need a little more work...






That's right, Flame Man's stage has also received a complete rework!

Flame Man's map has always simultaneously been one that I'd consider iconic to 8-Bit Deathmatch, but also one where its popular very... widely fluctuates depending on who you ask. And while there was something special about the old map, it really stood out in a sea of all the other map changes we've already made this version. So it got the good ole' V6C treatment of keeping the blueprints and identity that the map had before, but taking those ideas and turning it into something new.

While the map isn't tiny like it used to be, the more cramped nature of it persists across a lot of the map, and of course the oil pits are as dangerous as ever. There's something to be said about a map where a weapon like Flame Blast can be treated like a map clearing pickup rather than where it'd be placed on nearly any other map. Plus, the map definitely could have used a visual sweep regardless of how remade it got, so it's also just a lot prettier now.

Well, it was a shorter one but that's all I have for you guys for this newsletter. We'll see you next time and in the meantime, I guess it's time to start getting hyped for Mega Man Dual Override. Get out there and help Dr. Wily build that robot master!

Hey all you Mega Fans! We're back again with another V6C Newsletter!

Before we get into the subject of today's newsletter, I just wanted to thank you all for your input on the community poll. The poll is closed now but it will be some time before we announce our plan going forward. When we do, it will be back in that topic and will not follow the newsletter schedule. We just ask for your patience as even with the poll closed, it certainly won't be something we'll be ready to talk about immediately.

But enough of that. Let's actually show something new and exciting! I only have one subject to show you all today, but it'll be unique as far as these newsletters are concerned. So please take a look at this.



That's right! Chest, Plum, and Ripot are being added as brand new skins in V6C!

For those who don't know, this trio of news reporting robots originate from Mega Man Battle & Chase, more specifically Rockman Battle & Chase as they were more or less completely cut outside of the Japanese release of the game. But in our quest to try to encompass bits and pieces from the entire Classic Mega Man series, we felt that these three would make great additions to the skin roster.

Unlike map edits and weapon reworks, we very rarely get a chance to do anything new and exciting with skins outside of fixing up some older ones or adding a new roster when a new game is represented. So being able to add these three is certainly a very welcome addition to the many, many things being added in V6C!





I hope you all enjoy seeing this trio in action when V6C releases!

That's all for today's newsletter! While I have nothing I wanted to pair with these skins, we're not out of content to show you guys yet! So we'll see you next time with some more exciting updates!

Hey all you Mega Fans! We're here at a very different time for a very different kind of MM8BDM V6C update.

One of our (many, many) goals with V6C has been to update and refine our weapon view sprites all across the board. V6A updated the buster sprites, but we wanted to go back and edit all the other sprites to be up to the same modern standard, as much work as that is. This update is happening in V6C no matter what, so buckle up and get ready for it.

However, we on the development team have reached a little bit of a dilemma. While we were working on these updates, we ended up reaching a very real talking point regarding the amount of details these weapon view sprites should have, namely in terms of the coloring, and how detailed we want them to be. We have the very real opportunity to add what is essentially a 3rd color to our sprites. Instead of just having the view sprites be blue and cyan, it would be blue, cyan, and another darker blue, allowing for more detail, and making the style match both official artwork for the Mega Man series, but also the more detailed weapon get screens from the games.

Before I continue, let me show you all a preview of 25 weapons that use the new sprites, both in the current two color style, and a new three color style. Please note that none of the sprites or colors that you will see below are finalized and they are still subject to change. We normally would prefer to have everything finalized before showing them off, but I believe the community's input here is important enough that I want to post these early. Just remember they are subject to change.



As you can see, even with the updated sprites, the decision to stick with two colors VS three colors is a very large one, and it's one the development team wishes to poll the community at a large about. We're not fully sure as a whole which path to take going forward, as there are a number of pros and cons that I would like to list out.

Pros of Three Colors:

- Matching the style of the official artwork and Weapon Get screens can be considered to be overall prettier to look at and more visually appealing.

- This gives us a unique opportunity to better differentiate weapons that would otherwise share the same colors between them (such as Dust Crusher and Bubble Lead as seen in the above images.)

- With more detailed artwork and sprites being found in many of the game's mods found in the community, this brings the fidelity of the base game up to the same level.


Cons of Three Colors:

- While some might find three colors to be a prettier style to look at, others might find it more out of style.

- There's something of a learning curve with a change like that, and there's a whole lot of muscle memory associated with the current weapon colors, both in terms of those who have played MM8BDM for years, and for those very familiar with the weapon colors in the main Mega Man games.

- Mod creators of weapon packs will have a good deal of extra work on their hand having to update all of their weapons to account for the extra darker color in the sprites.


It is worth noting that modders will have some work required with this update regardless of decision made with the colors, namely with the sprite offsets being changed to account for the new sprites. That said, we will have a fallback in play so you will not be forced to immediately update your custom weapons.

For the reasons listed above, we want to extend this decision with the colors to the community as a whole. Below is a simple poll to vote on which color option you would prefer, and an optional space to write your reasoning if you choose to. It is worth noting that this decision is most likely not one we will come back to later. If we decide on sticking with two colors here, I imagine we will not change our line and change it again in a later version.

Vote for the poll HERE

The poll will stay open until the date of the next V6C Newsletter: Monday, November 24th. The results will probably not actually be released on that day and the Newsletter will instead be about something completely unrelated but hopefully still exciting.

Thank you all for reading, and voting on the poll! Your input is very important to us so please participate!

Hey all you Mega Fans! We're back again with another V6C Newsletter!

I've got another pretty simple newsletter lined up for you all today with another round of some map changes! I do think the next few newsletters will be very different than just map changes though, so feel free to keep that in mind...

That said, let's focus on the map changes of today! Firstly, this is one where the changes are on the smaller side of things, but that doesn't make it no less important.




Spark Man's map has always been a decisive one in the game, mostly and totally just due to it remaining one of the smaller arena maps in the game. Now I'm firmly on the side that this identity for the map is very important and I wouldn't want to replace the map with just a bigger box or something like that. But that doesn't mean we couldn't make some little changes to it. Outside of some nice texture touchups and some new background elements, we added little pillars to the corner to allow easier jumping to the edges of the map. We also added two smaller wings to two sides of the map, mostly to allow just a little extra cover and a place to duck out of a fight in a small map.

As for our other two maps of the day, let's take a look at two more Mega Man 8 touchups!





Tengu Man's stage has joined the ranks of getting a fresh coat of paint! The changes are a lot less openly obvious than the likes of Clown Man and Duo, but they are certainly appreciated nonetheless. As you can see in the last screenshot, we also added little balconies to the wings on both sides of the map. This makes the floating platforms WAY less of a commitment and offers more ways to move around a pretty rigid part of the map!






Aqua Man has also gotten a complete makeover! These tiles were definitely suffering a good deal out of Mega Man 8's lineup, so I'm really glad we were able to spice this one up. If you looked at how the stage looks in Mega Man 8 proper compared to Rockman 8 FC, you'd be shocked at the amount of details that were missing outright.

But as you can probably tell from the screenshots, Aqua Man got far more than just a coat of paint. Much of the entire back half of the map has been completely remade, both to compliment the new texture set, and to help open up what was otherwise a really bland and difficult to navigate half of the map.

Anyhow, that's all for today's newsletter! As I said before, expect some different content other than just maps next time! Until then!