Hello Commanders, We have a new PTE for testing. Balance Changes Stryker attack vehicle Speed decreased to 18 from 20 (same as Dox) Ant Light Tank Turn rate increased to 120 from 90 Grenadier Vision decreased to 125 from 130 Spark tesla bot Range increased to 70 from 65 Mend advanced combat fabricator Cost decreased to 1,000 from 1,200 Spinner anti-air vehicle Rate of fire decreased to 2.4 from 3 Piranha gunboat Range decreased to 120 from 130 Barracuda submarine Now has radar stealth like the Kraken Horsefly advanced heavy strafing aircraft Cost decreased to 1,800 from 2,000 Angel advanced air support platform Cost decreased to 5,000 from 5,500 Mines changed to sight vision which now reveal units and target radar stealth Technical Details Client Improvements Updated translations Updated strategic icons for water hover units Naval Basic Fabrication Ship Barnacle support barge Piranha gunboat AI Improvements AI landing policies now avoid planets with others AIs so they spread across planets Toolchain Updated software development toolchain: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toolchain Visual Studio 2019 16.8.x latest with 142 build tools Xcode 12.2 / macOS Big Sur 11 / 10.16 latest for macOS Mavericks 10.9+ with full notarisation using hardened runtime Steamworks SDK 150
Stryker attack vehicle - Speed decreased to 18 from 20 (same as Dox) Prefer a different direction from this asymmetric balancing direction. My own ideas are a 10 range nerf so dox get the first shot and a slight damage nerf from 15x2 to 13x2 so strykers don't overkill dox and glancing shots are less impactful. Slow strykers feel less fun. Ant Light Tank - Turn rate increased to 120 from 90 why? though I suppose it makes it more controllable but thats never been a feature of vehicles, more a bot thing. Not a big change though Grenadier - Vision decreased to 125 from 130 5 lul. ok. I prefer a decrease in fire rate so shots matter more, dodging has more impact and its less spammy to constantly dodge shots Spark tesla bot - Range increased to 70 from 65 5 is not so lul. Actually pretty big. Sparks generally counter large groups of strykers+dox but in small engagements there is a lot of fun to be had microing outside the range of sparks to kill them, this makes it very punishing for dox which is now only a 5 range difference and margins of error way more difficult to work around/less fun, and while strykers are at 10 its hard because strykers have turn rates and arcs so its rough for strykers. Also sparks are tank busters of infernos and usually ants counter them but if sparks get on top of ants, they trade well...overall I have my concerns. Mend advanced combat fabricator - Cost decreased to 1,000 from 1,200 very odd, didn't really think this aspect of combat fabs was a thing. I always viewed it as players not understanding how to use combat fabs, and combat fabs easily getting picked off. Does make it less risky investing though if you misuse them Spinner anti-air vehicle - Rate of fire decreased to 2.4 from 3 "Dreadnought disliked this" I'm one of the few that thinks spinners are actually fine, but ya thats just my POV. I think that a 20% decrease is a bit to large and would have preferred something more gradual like 10% or 2.7 firerate first before trying 20% Piranha gunboat - Range decreased to 120 from 130 Prefere 110 and a dps increase as compensation, but this is..ok, idk, problem is retaking shorelines from piranha gunboats. They still outrange double laser turrets but it should be easier with drifters and grenadiers now since torpedo launchers are no longer possible. Barracuda submarine - Now has radar stealth like the Kraken I dont like this, i'm a fan of total information and it will be very hard to scout out baracudas from a naval perspective, easier if you have air control...if you have air control. Horsefly advanced heavy strafing aircraft - Cost decreased to 1,800 from 2,000 Hoseflys need a rework IMO so their strafing is high intense micro like mutalisks from SC1, but not dumb like the old version with assisting other units. They are really good at obsoleting high cost, low health buildings like nukes/anti-nukes and no longer good at picking off high amounts of AA due to them flying over and ending up getting murdered because of low uptime. Maybe allow hover micro and add ammo bars for more high skill play. Angel advanced air support platform - Cost decreased to 5,000 from 5,500 I like the change, would like to see that for colonel as well. Colonels and Angels exist in a category where they are good and can do a lot of things but are to expensive to produce and you dont have time in 1v1 games or low econ team games.