The time has finally come for the air units to make their debut in Strategy mode! You've had enough time to test them out in Arena and provide us with enough valuable feedback for Dram to be able to tweak their parameters. This major update is the first and the biggest one for this year! There's a lot of additions besides the air units themselves such as the relevant structures to produce the air units (Air Factory, Grand Spawning Cyst, Colossal Spawning Cyst) and much more.
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You can check the full changelog here:
Major
- Added: Air Factory (Gunship, Fighter, Dropship, Bomber)
- Added: Grand Spawning Cyst (Goliath)
- Added: Colossal Spawning Cyst (Defiler, Colossus)
- Added: Anti-Air Rocket Turret
- Added: Monument Valley level
- Added: UI indicators for stuck units in RTS
- Added: Unit cap for Strategy game mode including values in RTS UI (may be set up low/medium/high/infinite)
- Added: Camera behind vehicles moves upward when looking up to allow better view
- Improved: Rifle animations
- Improved: SMG animations
- Improved: Infantry FPS camera smoothness
- Improved: Infantry movement over mildly rough terrain
Minor
- Added: Cyst popping effect for alien unit production completion
- Added: Floodlights to factories
- Added: Descriptions to Gunship, Fighter, Dropship, Bomber
- Added: MG turrets to Research Facility on Tier 1
- Added: AA Rocket turrets to Research Facility on Tier 3
- Added: Weak point on underbelly of the Goliath
- Added: Strong point on Goliath's front legs
- Added: Aircraft are slower to turn when using after-burners
- Added: Level Of Detail models to alien air creatures for performance
- Added: Aircraft starts landed when produced (to allow players to quickly hop in on the pad)
- Fixed: Constructible units/structures showed incorrect durability values in the UI
- Fixed: Turrets occasionally spammed 'Cannot send RPC for script'
- Fixed: Elevator janky bouncing (still mild, will be improved later)
- Fixed: Idle Harvester/Shrimp icon appeared wrong on clients
- Changed: Fighter rockets changed to large missiles with corresponding damage and effects
- Changed: Heavy Vehicle Factory no longer needs Light Vehicle Factory to be built
- Changed: Ultra Heavy Vehicle Factory no longer needs Heavy Vehicle Factory to be built
- Changed: Health and armor values for Wasp
- Changed: Health and armor values for Dragonfly
- Changed: Health and armor values for Firebug
- Changed: Health and armor values for Impaler
- Changed: Health and armor values for Goliath
- Changed: Shrimp extraction speed
- Changed: Shrimp cost
- Changed: Increased rolling speed of Goliath
- Changed: Gunship rockets to forward firing
- Changed: Gunship minigun damage
- Changed: Gunship less maneuverable but strafes better, slower forward speed
- Changed: Fighter less maneuverable, but faster forward speed
- Changed: Heavy Armored Car MG cannot aim down as much
- Changed: Hover Tank MG cannot aim down as much
- Changed: Turret build time to 80s
- Changed: Heavy Turret build time to 80s
- Changed: Anti-Air Turret build time to 80s
- Changed: Greater Spawning Cyst no longer requires Lesser Spawning Cyst
- Changed: Reduced Bomber health
- Changed: Reduced Fighter health/armor
- Changed: Bomber turn rate reduced
- Changed: Human vehicle MG turrets aim upwards more
- Improved: SMG sounds
- Improved: Gunship rocket spread/damage
- Improved: Gunship rockets appearance
- Improved: Air units pathfinding route processing for both aliens and humans
- Improved: Aircraft AI movement handling
Known Issues
- Harvester pathfinding is problematic on the Monument Valley map at present, so please bear with us while we fix it. Overall pathfinding is due for drastic improvements, including collision avoidance, now that the air units are out.
- Performance is now top priority along with aforementioned pathfinding improvements, however there are times where it still suffers. This will be the primary focus for the coming weeks, so expect big improvements here.
- Transport vehicles do not yet transport AI troops and cannot be instructed to eject troops that have been manually loaded in. This will be finished in the coming week or two.
As the whole gameplay and dynamic is about to change on the scorching deserts and skies of Baltarus, here are some parting words from Dram himself:
"Hello people of Baltarus!
This latest build introduces a number of important improvements and changes to hopefully make play more fun and interesting. The air units are of course the largest addition, enhancing Strategy mode with a new layer of depth. Apart from this, there is also the introduction of a unit cap system. This will help with not only performance but also balance and it is possible to choose between 4 settings: Low/Medium/High/Infinite. Changes in terms of health, armor and damage have also occured to hopefully make things a bit more balanced.
I also consider it crucial to be completely transparent and directly state that the AI is still on the weaker end and will be a big focus going forward. Apart from that, the primary focus for the next few weeks will be on performance, which the game still suffers from in late game (although helped a lot with the addition of the unit cap system).
So on that note, I hope you enjoy the latest update and please feel free to send feedback my way via Discord or Steam. The game is still in Early Access after all and therefore heavily influenced by your feedback! So thank you to everyone for providing feedback in all its forms.
Take care, everyone, especially in these trying times, stay safe."
- Martin Melichárek
