MMO98 - Service Pack 1 update

Hi everyone, it's been almost 1 week since we released MMO98, and it hasn't been exactly smooth sailing along the way.

However, unlike in-game, we don't just pump and dump games, without looking back and patching them up, so welcome to our first major update, Service Pack 1 (v2026.04.27.1).

The full changelog can be found at the bottom of this post.

World upgrades

Players were hitting numbers of in-game playercounts that we didn't foresee during development, which led into issues late-game where your ping would be stuck at 999 since your datacenters couldn't scale far enough.

We've now expanded datacenters to have individual, higher capacities, as well as adding the ability to upgrade your existing datacenters as well, allowing you to hit even higher playercounts without incurring a ping limitation.

Research storage rework

We've also reworked the way data storage works. We weren't entirely happy with how you have to spend data to increase your data cap, as this could feel like a "wasted" sequel round. Instead, we've now made it that the data storage cap will automatically increase as you spend your data.

On top of that, we've also rebalanced all of our research upgrades in terms of cost, to have a more clear flow.

Bombduster changes

Having to beat Expert level Bombduster was a stupid idea, and a mistake from us. We had already decided that the Bombduster Steam achievement would only require you to beat 1 difficulty of Bombduster, however we forgot that completionist required you to get all in-game milestones (which included Advanced/Expert difficulty).

These Bombduster milestones have been removed from the game, as you didn't buy this game to play Bombduster, and Expert difficulty can be infuriating to beat.

Discord server changes

We're also moving the game's Discord server for support to a new server: https://discord.gg/Ap2hx3hEWn

We've actually been active on the game development side of YouTube for the past 4 years (if you want to find out more about how we run our own gamedev studio), having built up a Discord primarily aimed at game developers.

This was leading to some issues however with the influx of new members who were primarily gaming focused into the gamedev server, so we've decided to split these 2 up. URLs have been changed in all the relevant places.

About the reviews

Lastly, I'd like to ask for a personal favor. MMO98 is a game we've put a lot of love in, with just a 2 man devteam. I understand that a lot of reviews were worried about us seemingly abandoning the game, pushing reviewers over the edge to leave a negative review.

Having a game at Mixed is a death sentence for a game on Steam however, massively reducing future sales potential and the future of our studio.

If you were on the fence about your review, please give the game another shot, and if you feel like it's moving in the right way, updating your review would mean the world to me. Also, if you haven't left a review yet, please do so, as these will also still massively help us.

Video update

We've also made a quick update video where we talk a bit more about the changes we've made and what's next.

Changelog

• Datacenters now have individual player capacities

• Datacenters can now be upgraded infinitely to increase total player capacity

• Datacenter pacing has been altered, unlocking the world view later in the game now

• Reworked data storage unlocks

• Removed Bombduster milestones

• Implemented limitations on Auctionhouse Escrow accounts

• Rebalanced the Auctionhouse item values

• Rebalanced the upgrade, research and operation costs

• Rebalanced Data and True Fans collected ratios

• Reduced the threshold to get acquired by GlobalConnet

• Added additional tooltips

• Added a help menu (F1 in main menu)