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📢 Friday Sitrep - 7/24/26
▲ 12 r/Metalstorm

📢 Friday Sitrep - 7/24/26

https://reddit.com/link/1v5szso/video/0xs6bsuzs9fh1/player

👋 Hey Pilots,

Time for your Friday news update. Matchmaker and stability were the focus this week, so let's jump in.

Matchmaker

The team has been working through all your reports, and we're still keeping a close eye on the matchmaker's health. If anything changes, we'll let you know. When you report a bug, please keep including your profile link, your selected plane, and your party's trophy and plane levels if you can. It helps our engineers spot outliers and track down bugs faster.

📣 Quick PSA on restarting your queue: it doesn't get you into matches faster. It actually slows you down. Every time you cancel, think of it like giving up your spot in line and walking to the back. The matchmaker prioritizes whoever's been waiting longest.

Tuesday Downtime Compensation 🎁

We had an extended downtime on Tuesday (July 21) tied to an issue from our update. It's since been resolved, and we've put measures in place to keep it from happening again. Your patience and bug reports made it much easier to pin down, so thank you. Compensation is already in your in-game inbox, ready to claim. Thanks for riding that out with us.

Today's Outage (AWS)

Separate from Tuesday, we saw some downtime early today at 7/24/26, 4:00 AM. This was an AWS outage in the US-West region, which was out of our hands. You may have noticed other services like PlayStation were hit by the same thing today. When something like this happens, we want to flag it for you sooner, so we're looking into a notification system for broader/global infrastructure issues.

Inbound ✈️

Last week I teased some features in the works, and they're hitting the playtest this weekend:

  • Capture the Flag
  • F/A-18 rework and new Special Ability
  • Customizable, scalable HUD (early prototype look below)

Metalstorm Championship Series is back!🏆

Been itching to compete, or ready to prove that rival squadron wrong? Take it to Matcherino. The MCS Summer Open Qualifier sign-ups are live: http://tr.ee/mcssummersignups

The reigning Spring Champions, the Sentinels, are back to defend their title. If you want to dogfight against the very best, it starts here at the Open Qualifiers. Get your squad together, sign up, and compete for Gold, cosmetics, and cold, hard cash if you make the Major. Suit up and sign up.

MiG-29 Fulcrum: Zero & Aggressor 👀

Grab the latest early unlock of the MiG-29 Fulcrum. Inspired by a real MiG-29 aerobatics livery, the Zero is a flashy, commanding paint for anyone looking to put on a show. Want something more operational? Look no further than the Aggressor.

Both bundles are on the Web Shop, where every purchase earns Star Points you can redeem for more rewards and supports the studio directly. https://playmetalstorm.com/shop

------------

That's it for this week. Hope you all have a great weekend. Here in Seattle, we'll be catching the parades and ship tours at the Navy and Coast Guard's annual Fleet Week. We'll be back next week with more to share. Till then, we'll see you in the skies. 🤙

-Jesse

https://preview.redd.it/g2c3oirws9fh1.png?width=3840&format=png&auto=webp&s=d7ce59049e9a1c731043774cc39a8c793c8eb52d

reddit.com
u/PlayMetalstorm — 1 day ago
▲ 15 r/Metalstorm

Server Issues

Hi Pilots,
The team is aware of and investigating the current server issue. We will update you once we have resolved the issue.

Thank you for the reports and patience.

Update: Team is working on a fix. Sorry for the interruption and we will be providing compensation for the outage. Thanks, pilots!

reddit.com
u/PlayMetalstorm — 5 days ago
▲ 28 r/Metalstorm

Friday Sitrep

Hi Pilots,

Coming at you with a Friday update!

Tons going on in the Starform office this week with the matchmaker as the #1 priority. To keep it short: the new matchmaker is out! We've had a little turbulence but are making quick corrections for a more stable experience.

Bugs Splashed (fixed this week)

  • A short window during the PVP Season End rollover and migration to the new matchmaker caused some aircraft to be reset to 950 instead of 1000. Trophies and missing Ace Coins have been restored.
  • Players under 1000 Trophies were hitting longer than expected queues. We squashed the bugs in the new bot match option so they can get into a game faster.
  • If you were in queue when the map or game mode changed, you could get stuck, since players now queue for the current map/mode. For now we roll you into the new event, but we want a cleaner fix and are working on it.

On the Radar (known issues)

  • We're tracking a bug tied to ping/latency that's causing long queues. The team is on it this weekend. In the meantime, you may get faster matches by joining the queue in the region with your best connection/ping.

While there have been some bumps, we want to call out the good that comes with the new matchmaker too. In certain Trophy ranges we're seeing more humans per match and much more competitive games, some decided by a single kill in TDM or just 1 second in AS and PT. 

This new system gives us more data and more ways to fine-tune. There are still bugs to work out and we'll need time to see how the data trends, but the good news is we now have the tools to make more informed matchmaker decisions. Thank you for the countless messages and support emails. Your input has helped us greatly in identifying issues, squashing bugs, and shaping how we evaluate a "good" match of Metalstorm.

Now… time for the juicy updates. The team's also been on a few side projects we're excited to share:

Inbound (coming to PTS)

  • Capture the Flag is hitting the PTS very soon to get your first thoughts.
  • The F/A-18 is an iconic bird in the real world but isn't quite there in Metalstorm. A rework is coming to PTS with a new Special Ability and some stat tuning for this old bird.
  • And certainly not least, one of the most requested features… a customizable AND scalable HUD. It's coming to PTS and, with a bit more work, will be ready for release soon.

That's it for this week, pilots. Thank you again for all your feedback and for flying with us. Wherever you are, enjoy your weekend and we'll see you in the skies.

-Jesse

reddit.com
u/PlayMetalstorm — 8 days ago
▲ 15 r/Metalstorm

The Big Matchmaking Update Arrives July 15

Pilots,

The first major matchmaker update is almost here: on July 15 at 12:00 PM PT (8:00 PM UTC), the start of the new PvP season brings the biggest set of changes we've ever made to matchmaking, ranks, and trophies.

We've been talking about matchmaking a lot these past few weeks and reviewing all your feedback. While these conversations are recent, we have had a team of our engineers working on a new matchmaker for a few months. This upcoming season, it will finally land in the game.

This is a big step forward, but there are still more improvements coming. We will be monitoring internal data and your feedback on how the new matchmaker behaves to further tune it. 

Matchmaking gaps today

The current matchmaker is very strict about who it will let you fight. In the middle trophy ranges that works better, because there are plenty of pilots at your skill. But once you climb high enough, it struggles to find opponents based on the banding. That meant longer queue times that still ended with more bots than needed in your matches..

This created two problems at the top. Some pilots climbed further than the trophy system was ever built for, which made it harder and harder for the matchmaker to find a comparable opponent, leading to more bot matches. Others swapped to lower-trophy planes to find competition, which reduced the pool of high trophy players even further and made it more difficult to find matches. 

What's changing on July 15

Everything below goes live at season rollover. Here's the quick version. The details are underneath.

  1. Rank bands are shifting down. Most pilots will start the season at a higher rank than they finished, and you'll be paid the Ace Coin reward for every rank you're granted.
  2. The season reset is changing. New reset points, explained below, so you know exactly where you'll start.
  3. Diamond and above becomes one matchmaking pool. More real opponents at the top.
  4. Trophies only come from real opponents. Matches with only bots no longer award trophies above 1,000.
  5. High ranks now expect a competitive plane. Expected plane levels are going up at high trophy counts.
  6. Daily win rewards are increasing.

Higher ranks, same trophies

We've redrawn the trophy range for every rank. If you finished last season at 1,000 trophies, you were Platinum III. This season, 1,000 trophies is Diamond I. When the season starts, you'll hold the rank your trophies earn under the new bands, and every rank you're granted pays out its Ace Coin reward on day one.

We've also adjusted how many trophies you win and lose above Platinum. Holding your rank, and climbing past it, now takes a more reasonable win rate than before, with understanding that it is against more human pilots. 

Master and Grandmaster thresholds aren't moving. With trophies now only earned against real pilots, reaching them will mean more than it ever has.

Where you'll start

One reset, three simple rules, based on where each of your planes finishes this season:

  • 1,000 or more trophies: you start at 1,000, Diamond I. Everyone above the line begins the climb from the same starting grid.
  • 700 to 999 trophies: you drop 50 trophies and earn Ace Coins for the ground you gave up.
  • Below 700 trophies: you keep every trophy. No reset.

Both trophy reset points have moved to line up with the new rank bands. The hard reset drops from 1,150 to 1,000, so it now sits exactly at the new Diamond I line: everyone entering the open pool starts the season from the same mark. And the trophy reset floor rises from 600 to 700, which means if your planes are sitting between 600 and 700 trophies, your trophies will not be reset at the start of the new season.

One pool at the very top

From this season, every pilot above 1,000 trophies matches in the same pool. Our data shows that skill above this line is very similar: if you've reached Diamond, you're an experienced, capable Ace. The matchmaker will still weigh your aircraft level, System Upgrades, and the rest of the picture when building the match, it is not just trophy count that matters. What changes is that it has far more real pilots to choose from, which means fuller lobbies and fewer bots. Building a fair match can still take a moment, and we'd rather the matchmaker take that moment than hand you a lopsided fight.

Trophies only come from real opponents

Above 1,000 trophies, matches against bots no longer award trophies. 

If the queue runs long, the matchmaker will offer you a bot match to play, where you can still earn progression in your Flight Pass, daily wins, Pilot XP, Mastery and Quests. You just won't earn trophies.

This lets you jump straight into a match when time is tight and still complete your dailies, while keeping the trophy leaderboards based purely on PvP. From now on, every trophy above the line was taken from a real pilot.

Competing at the top expects a competitive plane

At high trophy counts, the matchmaker assumes your plane is leveled for that rank. If it isn't, you'll still be matched as though it were. We've raised those expectations this season, and we'll keep adjusting them as the leaderboards settle.

Together with the bot change, this means one thing: leaderboard spots are earned against real opponents, in planes built for the fight. And with upgrade costs reduced significantly in our recent June update, getting a plane to a competitive level takes less resources and time. 

50% Larger daily win rewards

Trophies will be harder to earn as you climb, and that's by design. Your progress shouldn't be, so we're boosting daily win rewards by 50% to make sure you keep progressing every day you fly.

A quick note on win rate

A better matchmaker does not mean a higher win rate. It means fairer matches. When the system has a good read on your skill, your plane, and your team, most matches should feel like they could go either way, and over time most pilots will sit somewhere near even. If your win rate climbs, you're outgrowing your competition and the matchmaker will test you against tougher opponents. If it dips, you may be facing stronger pilots after a hot streak or learning a new plane. This variability is what will make every match feel more meaningful and all the better when you earn the MVP. We do not use win rate to identify good matchups.

What comes next

Matchmaking will be a work in progress that we are making a commitment to improving, and it's a constantly evolving conversation. As the game grows with more players and as everyone gets better, our matchmaker will need to grow with it. Expect tuning changes along the way while we find the balance that keeps Metalstorm fun and fair. Further down the road, this foundation is what a true Ranked mode will be built on.

As always, we're listening to your feedback, and we'll be monitoring the system closely from the moment it launches so we can tweak it quickly where needed. If you have questions or concerns, drop them in the thread.

See you in the skies!
- Starform Team

Note: We are digging into the specifics of Ace Coin caps and conversions, and will share share more news on this soon.

u/PlayMetalstorm — 19 days ago
▲ 34 r/Metalstorm

Compensation Live (and Hangar Level Restored)

Compensation Update... It's Live!

Testing went great and the team just deployed the update! Upgrades 2.0 Compensation is now ready to claim in system messages (and your Hangar Level is restored, sorry about that). If you have any issues, please reach out to our support team: https://support.playmetalstorm.com/hc/en-us. Thanks, pilots!

reddit.com
u/PlayMetalstorm — 1 month ago
▲ 42 r/Metalstorm

UPGRADES 2.0 CHANGES

Edit: Hangar level issue has been resolved!

***NOTE: putting this at the top since I've already seen a lot of posts about it, hangar level decrease is temporary and something that will be fixed when the compensation/migration ships later this week!

UPGRADES 2.0 CHANGES ARE LIVE!

Last week we shared that we're tuning the economy and pace of Metalstorm. We heard you and agree that maxing aircraft was getting too Silver intensive and taking too long. We've dramatically cut the Silver needed to max out every aircraft. The first wave of changes is live now, with more on the way.

What's Changing:

Blueprints

The Silver cost to craft and upgrade Blueprints — both special and passive — is gone entirely.

System Upgrades

Silver and Parts costs are reduced across all System Upgrade tracks and all levels.

Upgrade Choice Nodes (Levels 5–8)

Once you upgrade your first choice at a level, the other option at that same level now costs far less Silver and Parts — and no longer costs a second Advanced Part.

Squadron Event

We've lowered token requirements for the early levels, so the same effort carries you further in Event Level. More Squadron Event changes are coming based on your feedback from the recent survey.

Compensation Incoming

Since Upgrades launched recently, we're building a plan to fully compensate the Silver, System Parts, and Advanced Parts difference between the old and new prices on any system upgrade nodes you've purchased since it went live. We want to get this right, so it'll take a little time — look for it in your in-game system messages over the next few days. In the meantime, you will temporarily drop Hangar Level due to us refunding so much Silver to you. This will be corrected in the migration once we compensate you.

A Gift, Right Now

In the meantime, log in and go claim a free Silver gift in your system messages, based on Hangar Level — our thanks for your feedback and patience.

Keep your eyes on the skies. More tuning and updates very soon.
— Starform Team

reddit.com
u/PlayMetalstorm — 1 month ago
▲ 18 r/Metalstorm

Heads up remember to pick up your star points!

We sent out a system message today that includes 500 star points, just posting to remind you guys to be sure to collect and redeem them in the web store! We've also had some adjustments to our Upgrades 2.0 webtool that might have been missed! Now you can share a compact photo which shows up better when sharing builds and if you click the info "i" button you can pull up our stats glossary which has definitions on all the stats! https://playmetalstorm.com/upgrades

also just throwing up a little code for reddit today: hireddit

500 silver

(redeem within 24 hrs of this post going live here: https://playmetalstorm.com/shop )

reddit.com
u/PlayMetalstorm — 2 months ago