xREL.v3

Update v1.1.0 incl DLC:


An update is rolling out for Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak on Monday, March 21, 2016. This update features support for the upcoming Soban Fleet Pack, bug fixes, balance changes, and more.

New Content (DLC)

Added the Kiith Soban (A new playable DLC faction to Skirmish and Multiplayer).
All players will be able to join matches that include this faction for opponents, but only players who have purchased the DLC will be able to use the faction.


New Features

Replays

A replay system has been added allowing players to save and watch the games they have played.


Control groups UI

Units will now have an indicator of the last assigned control group above the unit (By the health bar).


Balance Changes (MP/Skirmish)

Coalition

Light Attack Vehicles

We want to increase the LAV’s ability to both engage and disengage from combat to make them a better match for the Gaalsien Sandskimmers.

Boost ability cooldown reduced from 60 to 30 seconds
Boost speed increased from 160 to 176
LAV weapon cooldown reduced from 0.95 to 0.8
LAV accuracy changed from 65/75/85 to 56/83/94


Armored Assault Vehicles

Armored Assault Vehicles are too strong against light vehicles and we want to soften the relationship.

AAV armor reduced from 15 to 10
AAV damage increased from 10 to 11
AAV Weapon cooldown increased from 0.6 to 0.8


Baserunner

We want to change Baserunner Turrets from a reactive decision to an active decision that requires forethought. Now turrets are more accessible but their placement requires more planning.

Baserunner Turrets no longer require research
Deploy Turret ability now begins with a 110 second cooldown (ability begins on cooldown)
New research: Baserunner Inventory removes the cooldown on Deploy Turret
Baserunner Turret begins firing 5 seconds after it has been deployed


Missile Battery

We increased the travel speed on the grenade launched by the Missile Battery’s Mortar ability to make the targeting of this ability easier.

Mortar ability grenade travel speed increased by 20%


Gunship

We have improved the usefulness of the Gunship to encourage build variety.

Gunship AOE reduced from 200 to 160
Gunship AOE damage reduced from 100 to 60
Gunship # of bursts reduced from 6 to 5
Gunship reload time reduced from 3 seconds to 2 seconds
Gunship AOE damage falloff changed from linear to none
Gunship weapon cooldown reduced from .75 seconds to .35 seconds


Railguns

We want to reduce Railguns effectiveness against Battlecruisers to promote strategic variety in games.

Railgun movement speed reduced from 75 to 66
Railgun armor reduced from 6 to 3


Production Queue

We’ve updated the cost and location in the tech tree of Production Queue research to allow for greater build variety.

Carrier Production upgrades now cost 500 CU
2nd Carrier Production upgrade now gated behind Railgun Tech instead of gated by 1st Carrier Production upgrade


Carrier

We’ve made the research for Carrier power more granular to allow more Carrier play earlier in the game while maintaining the timing on the Carrier’s late game combat strength.

Power Research increments increased to 7 from 5



Gaalsien

Carrier

We want to even out the curve on the Gaalsien Carrier Regeneration Shunting ability.

Shunting Regeneration level 1 increased from 10 to 30
Shunting Regeneration level 2 increased from 20 to 50
Shunting Regeneration level 3 increased from 40 to 70
Shunting Regeneration level 4 increased from 80 to 90
Shunting Regeneration level 5 reduced from 160 to 110


We’ve made the research for Carrier power more granular to allow more Carrier play earlier in the game while maintaining the timing on the Carrier’s late game combat strength.

Power Research increments increased to 7 from 5


Sandskimmer

We want to bring Gaalsien Sandskimmer health more in line with LAVs.

Sandskimmer health reduced from 700 to 650


Railgun

We want to reduce Railguns effectiveness against Carriers to promote strategic variety in games.

Railgun movement speed from 70 to 62
Railgun armor from 6 to 3


Production Cruiser

We want to soften the Production Cruiser’s anti air capability to allow players a chance to mitigate the damage with good micro.

Production Cruiser has reduced accuracy against Coalition Probe
Damage increased from 15 to 20
Rate of fire reduced from 25 to 15
Accuracy changed from 65/55/45 to 55/40/25


We’ve updated the Honor Guard Cruiser to focus on its intended role of ground based line breaker.

Anti-air passive ability changed to an active, duration ability which disables the main Railgun and lasts for 25 seconds
Point defense weapons now active by default
Railgun AOE falloff changed from linear to none
Railgun AOE range reduced from 250 to 200


Bug Fixes

AI Fixes
Improved on the difficulty of AI. Normal and Hard should both see improved behaviour/difficulty.

Rally points
Rally Move and Rally Resource will now have different colored waypoint lines.

Camera will no longer center on control groups unless double tapped.
Camera focus on a unit will not be lost when transitioning out of Sensors Manager.
Fixed keyboard input issues caused by external controller interference.
Fixed some carrier pathing issues in Firebase Kriil
Added music to the Boneyard Multiplayer map
Fixed an issue with audio sometimes getting muted after accepting multiplayer game invites.
Fixed an issue with targeting reticles getting stuck on when spamming ground target abilities.
Fixed Targeting reticles lingering too long.
The Game will now end faster after an annihilation victory is achieved
Moved a spawn location in the Khar-Toba multiplayer map to be closer to it’s starting resources (matching the other 5).
Fixed several crash issues


Additional Notes

Hotkey exposed in a config file
Hotkeys can now be remapped by editing a new hotkey config file.
Unranked Matchmaking has been disabled.