Patching you through. . .

Ready for new orders, Commander! This update brings a few minor community-requested features and changes, including: an update and clarification to our EULA, a new Difficulty Selector for Campaign missions, and an option to mute players during matches.

We also focused on improving the general gameplay feel and the viability of more diverse strategies for both the GDF and Dynasty factions. Some notable updates include:

• Improved Air unit weapon tracking when attacking enemies
• Added new ‘Repair Aura’ mechanic to the GDF’s Repair Bay
• Added new ‘Healing Aura’ ability (Temporary Infirmary) to the GDF’s Guard Tower
• Added Silence effect to the Dynasty Dragonfly’s Signal Disruptor ability 

EULA Update

We have made some minor changes to our EULA to improve clarity and accuracy regarding privacy and data, based on concerns we were seeing from some players regarding its original wording.

In short, we do not sell player data. We respect your privacy and only use the minimal information necessary to provide a secure and stable game experience.

Notably, this section was added under “2. General Provisions”:

2.3 The COMPANY does not scan, access, or collect information about the hardware or devices of Users beyond what is strictly necessary for the operation and security of the Game. The Game does not collect, store, or sell any personal data or information about Users for marketing or commercial purposes. Any information required for the functioning of the Game is processed in accordance with applicable laws and solely for the purpose of providing and maintaining the Game experience.

New Features

Difficulty Selector

• Added a Difficulty selector allowing players to switch difficulties in between missions

Mute Players During Match

• Added the ability to mute players during a match 
  • Left-click on a player’s nickname in game chat to mute
  • The muted player will now have a ‘Muted’ icon near their nickname

Balance Updates

In this patch, we’re aiming to improve the dynamism of the early game. We continue to tweak Harvesters to be more attractive harassment targets, improve some less-used early game units like the Field Scout and Dynasty Guard, and introduce some new options for GDF early in Tier 2. 

We have also improved the responsiveness of Air unit weapons, which should add to their unit harassment potential.

General

• Improved Air unit weapon tracking when attacking enemies
• Medical Kits Perk (healing in Garrisons) increased to 10 HP per 2 seconds (from 5)
• Anti-Tank Mines Damage increased to 230 (from 200)

Global Defense Force (GDF)

We’re aiming to increase the number of viable options for the GDF in all stages of play in this patch.

While the GDF have a very strong late game, they struggle in the early and mid-game due to a lack of harassment options. By continuing to tweak units like the Field Scout, Riot Trooper, Grenadier, and Hunter Tank, while slowing down the build speed of Sentinels and Hunter tanks to make them slightly less spammable, we are seeking to broaden the GDF’s early game toolset. 

We have slightly reduced the Skycrane’s cost and build time, hoping to reinvigorate interest in early harassment with this versatile tool in the GDF’s toolbox.

Additionally, we have made GDF Tier 2 units like the Queller more powerful and Comms Rig more accessible while improving the Peacekeeper’s slightly underwhelming Anti-Air attack.

Repair Bay

To make the Repair Bay more versatile and easier to use, we have added a Repair Aura that heals all buildings, vehicles, and air units in a moderate area. It still has its original fast and powerful primary repair. To balance this new feature, we are also increasing its cost and build time.

• New mechanic: Now has a Repair Aura that repairs 15/tick in addition to its current repair
• Cost increased to 1300 (from 800)
• Production time increased to 20 seconds (from 12)

Guard Tower

We wanted to give the GDF another source of healing, so we have added a new ability to the Guard Tower to fill that role. Now, once the player has unlocked the Riot Pod on their Satellite Uplink, Guard Towers are able to activate ‘Temporary Infirmary’, which heals all infantry around them for 20 seconds at the cost of 10 Intel.

We hope that players find many fun uses for this new ability and are looking forward to seeing how it changes the GDF's early-game Intel spending habits.

• New ability: Temporary Infirmary. The Guard Tower generates a Healing Aura for 20 seconds. 
  • Cost: 10 Intel
  • Prerequisite: Riot Pod (Satellite Uplink upgrade)
  • Cooldown: 60 seconds

Harvester

We hope to increase the dynamism of the early game by making Harvesters die more easily, enabling more meaningful harassment, and forcing the GDF to work harder to protect their early income.

• Health reduced to 900 (from 950)

Field Scout

Field Scouts are already a potent unit, especially with Doctrines. We are hoping to encourage more use of Marking Mines by knocking some time off their cooldown

• Marking Mine cooldown reduced to 35 (from 45)

Riot Trooper

We fixed an issue with the area of effect for the Riot Trooper’s weapon and increased its attack area slightly to make it feel more powerful against groups of enemy infantry units. Additionally, an increase in its EMP Grenade projectile speed should now help it perform more consistently against vehicles.

• Riot Baton area of effect fixed, and its attack area increased to 400 (from 0 due to a bug)
• EMP Grenade projectile speed increased to 6000 (from 3500)

Comms Rig

While the Comms Rig is a cost-effective vehicle, its build time was slightly too long, leading to lower usage rates. This should help free up Vehicle Bay production queues and make the Comms Rigs easier to include in GDF army lineups.

• Production time reduced to 30 seconds (from 36)

Hunter Tank

We are experimenting with GDF, leaning towards smaller armies of more potent, specialized units. To that end, we are slightly increasing the production time of the Hunter Tank while making minor survivability and lethality adjustments.

• Attack Speed increased to 2.8 (from 2.9)
• Health increased to 600 (from 590)
• Production time increased to 19 seconds (from 18)

Sentinel

We are slightly increasing the vision range of the Sentinel and Havoc to make them more consistent scouting units. Additionally, we are slightly increasing the Sentinel's production time to reduce spamming in the early game.

• Production Time increased to 14 seconds (from 13)
• Vision radius increased to 4500 (from 4000)

Grenade Turret

After we released Balance Patch 3, we heard overwhelming feedback from players that they prefer the Grenade Turret with an Intel cost over a Credits cost, so we are reverting this change. Additionally, we are increasing the projectile speed of GDF Grenade weapons to make them more consistent: now, most retreating enemies will still take at least partial damage from Grenade weapons.

• Cost changed to 0 Credits | 10 Intel (from 900 Credits | 0 Intel)
• Projectile speed increased to 6000 (from 4000)

Grenadier

As mentioned under Grenade Turret, we are increasing the projectile speed of GDF Grenade weapons to make them more consistent: now, most retreating enemies will still take at least partial damage from Grenade weapons

• Projectile speed increased to 6000 (from 3500)

Peacekeeper

The Peacekeeper has been underperforming as an Anti-Air unit. We are increasing its ammo amount to help it handle aerial threats more consistently. Additionally, to make it a better anti-Drone unit in GDF mirror matches, we are adding a small amount of splash damage to its weapon.

• EYRIE SRAAM Missiles ammo amount increased to 7 (from 5)
• EYRIE SRAAM Missiles attack area increased to 160 (from 0)

Queller

We continue to seek a good middle ground for this unit between being dominant and underpowered, where it is worthwhile for harassment and picking off key enemy vehicles, but not so powerful that it is only counterable by air units.

• JUDGE Laser damage increased to 120 (from 100) per shot

Shieldmaiden

The Shieldmaiden provides tremendous value for its cost and is overperforming as a support unit. A slight Intel cost increase should nudge it in the right direction.

• Cost increased to 25 Intel (from 20)

Skycrane

Skycranes are intended to be a GDF harassment tool, and their current cost and build time make this strategy somewhat too expensive to be worthwhile. We are looking to make Engineer drops and Drone Operator harassment more viable while still requiring a non-trivial resource commitment.

• Cost reduced to 2100 (from 2300)
• Production time reduced to 40 seconds (from 42)

Trebuchet

The Trebuchet is one of the highest-damage units in the game. However, its usage rate is relatively low due to its slow Movement Speed. We are increasing its speed to improve its viability and encourage more frequent usage.

• Movement Speed increased to 450 (from 400)

Drone Command Unit (DCU)

The DCU is a keystone unit of late-game strategies for GDF players. We are looking to push it further into a niche and reduce its current status as a game-ender.

• Health reduced to 770 (from 800)

Tempest Dynasty (DYN)

We’re aiming to make the early game less frustrating for Dynasty players and encourage more diverse play options.

We are slightly reducing the production efficiency of the Pillager while also making Dynasty Guards and Boar Tanks more attractive options. We are also looking to help the Dynasty late game by making small but meaningful changes to the Tempest Sphere, Assault Gunner, and Leveler.

Dragonfly

With the changes to the Peacekeeper, we are giving the Dragonfly a 10% Health increase to keep up. Additionally, we are adding Silence to the Dynasty’s roster by adding it to the effects it inflicts upon enemy vehicles.

• New mechanic: Signal Disruptor now Silences affected units in addition to its other effects.
• Health increased to 440 (from 400)

Tempest Rig

We are aiming to make the Dynasty feel better to play overall. So, we are reverting the Tempest Rig Movement Speed decrease from our last balance patch; Harvester Wheels may also feel slightly snappier now.

However, to encourage more harassment of the Tempest Rig and further enable players’ ability to partially impact the Dynasty economy, we are reducing Harvester Wheel health and increasing their respawn time. This should improve the Dynasty’s expansion, but also allow for more harassment and counterplay with their economy. 

• Harvester Wheel Respawn time increased to 35 seconds (from 30)
• Harvester Wheel Health decreased to 270 (from 280)
• Movement Speed increased to 350 (from 300)

Ignitor

We are making the Napalm Grenade more lethal to make it a more interesting choice.

• Napalm Grenade damage increased to 30 per tick (from 15 per tick)

Boar Tank

The Boar Tank still struggles slightly as an alternative to the powerful and versatile Pillager: increasing its DPS while increasing the cost of the Pillager should improve the Boar’s value proposition as a front-line ‘skirmisher’ tank.

• Attack Speed increased to 2.35 (from 2.5)

Dynasty Guard

We’re aiming to improve how the Dynasty Guard stacks up against enemy infantry and make it a more interesting choice by further increasing its DPS.

• Damage increased to 11 (from 10)

Pillager

Pillagers have been overperforming relative to their cost, so we are tweaking them slightly to make them harder to mass produce.

• Cost increased to 1300 (from 1200)
• Production time increased to 32 seconds (from 30)

Havoc

We are slightly increasing the vision range of the Sentinel and Havoc to make them more consistent scouting units.

• Vision radius increased to 4500 (from 4000)

Tempest Sphere

We are largely happy with the Tempest Sphere's performance, but we want to make some tweaks to the Dynasty faction's overall performance in the late game. Tempest Plating will now generate slightly more Health when it activates.

• Tempest Plating healing increased to 7.5% of Max Health per activation (from 5%)

Leveler

The Leveler is a keystone unit of late-game strategies for DYN players. We are looking to push it further into a niche and reduce its current status as a game-ender. We are increasing its health to improve its survivability, but decreasing its population efficiency.

• Health increased to 740 (from 680)
• Population cost increased to 5 (from 4)

Assault Gunner

With the changes to air unit effectiveness and the GDF’s ability to lock down enemy infantry, we are improving the Assault Gunner’s range and damage slightly to shore up the Dynasty’s anti-air and combat support.

• Range increased to 3300 (from 3000)
• Damage increased to 25 (from 20)

Bug Fixes

General Gameplay

• Fixed a unit pathing issue where vehicles couldn’t push moving Infantry when moving in a selected group, causing vehicles to get stuck behind
• Fixed an issue where players were unable to use “Mine Drop” Support Power on structures
• Fixed an issue where air unit models would disappear from the screen if their selection shape was outside of the frame
• Fixed an issue where the Attack Move command and selected group are cancelled after losing any unit in the selected group
• Fixed an issue where Repair would be cancelled after loading a save file
• Fixed an issue where the Trebuchet and Comms Rig would get stuck in the Repair Bay when switching to deployed mode while entering

Multiplayer/Skirmish

• Fixed an issue where two players were able to spawn in one slot in Quick Play or Ranked 2v2 mode
• Fixed an issue where players could be spawned for different teams in Quick play or Ranked 2v2 matches due to internet stability issues
• Fixed an issue where a queued Doctrine being researched could be skipped in Skirmish or Multiplayer matches
• Fixed an issue where the Dynasty Guard’s grenade cooldown could be reset if the player packed and unpacked the Construction Yard Bastion
• Fixed an issue where remaining map vetoes were set to 0 if the player selected one map and played a Quick Play or Ranked match
• Fixed an issue where all maps would be displayed in map preferences, instead of only maps available for the selected mode in Quick Play or Ranked

Party/Chat System

• Fixed an issue where players were able to see their opponents in Chat before the match started
• Fixed an issue where Party Invites were not appearing in Steam private messages
• Fixed an issue where the “Create Game” button was available for party members in the Custom Games multiplayer tab
• Fixed an issue where Party Invite pop-ups for a player would stack on top of each other when multiple invites from the same player were received
• Fixed an issue where the “View Profile” button was sometimes not available in the chat widget if a player re-joined the lobby
• Fixed an issue where sometimes Party Invites would appear only in Steam private messages instead of in-game invitation pop-ups 
• Fixed an issue where the Party leader sometimes couldn’t see invited players in the Party
• Fixed an issue where the 1v1 game mode was available to search while in a Party, after playing a Quick Play or a Ranked 2v2 match
• Fixed an issue where messages received during a match from friends were not displayed in chat after the match
• Fixed an issue where the buttons for single-player modes were sometimes not locked for the Party leader
• Fixed an issue where the Search button was not available for 2v2 modes after excluding the 3rd player from the Party
• Fixed an issue where the format of the player's nickname in Chat would change when using quotations in the name

UI

• Made minor visual improvements to the Chat widget
• Fixed an issue where Harvester Wheels were shown in the score screen as units killed by the player, if the player sold the Tempest Rig
• Fixed an issue where Harvesters and Tempest Rigs would have a "waiting" icon regardless of their current state if there was more than one of them
• Fixed an issue where Veti units and buildings were missing on the score screen statistics in Campaign
• Fixed an issue where player pings continued to be displayed after player nicknames were hidden in chat

Briefing scenes

• Improved the performance of all mission briefing scenes 
• Changed the lighting conditions for some briefings (this is more noticeable in Dynasty mission briefings)

Crashes

• Various server crash fixes