xREL.v3

Released 7/14

Hello,
We are introducing two new features for Ashes that we are planning on releasing soon. Observer Mode will allow other players watch your multiplayer games and the new "half-resolution terrain" graphics option will reduce gpu memory requirements. We also been hard at work fixing crashes and improved the game balance.

Overview
Observer Mode
Check out the action in other player's games! In multiplayer games, the host can allow players to join as "observers" that can watch the action without actually participating.

Half-Resolution Terrain
This new graphics option reduces the graphics resources used by Ashes. While sacrificing very little in visual quality, enabling this option will greatly improve in-game stability on lower spec machines and on larger maps.

MGPU Players: Please note that systems with 16gb or less of RAM may encounter stability issues if the graphics quality profile is set to "Crazy". For these systems, we recommend either disabling MGPU or reducing the quality settings.

Change Log
Added "Half-Resolution Terrain" graphics option that improves stability on low-spec machines and on larger maps
Added "Observer Mode" to multiplayer that allows other players to watch games without actively participating.
If you have a video card with less the 2GB of VRAM, the game will prompt you to play with low graphics settings.
T3s given slightly more armor/shields
The Avenger's weapon is no longer able to penetrate building armor.
PHC Brute squad size reduced from 6 to 3, HP per unit doubled.
PHC Falcon AA cannon fires more often and does more damage.
Substrate Mauler primary weapon no longer effective against buildings (it works by super-heating the internals of a unit, buildings are hardened against this)
PHC Archer now fires two rockets per volley instead of 1, damaged reduced
PHC Brute primary weapon now fires 6 plasma bolts instead of 4 per volley
Nemesis primary weapon no longer can penetrate building armor
Zeus Lightning bolt can no longer penetrate building armor
Updated the Cerius resource and region connection balance
Prevent sound spam when a player joins/leaves a 3+ player games lobby
Medic now prioritizes healing units over buildings.
Using F3 to select idle ships is no longer creates a very loud noise if several ships are on the screen
Pausing during nexus explosion no longer causes graphics artifacts
Pausing no longer causes loud repeating sounds.
The Substrate AI has better targeting for its "Avatar" orbital ability.
Slight font size increases to increase UI readability.
Fixed a crash in caused by a waypoint race condition
Fixed an audio-related crash in the campaign missions
The game will no longer crash if the player whose name includes invalid characters joins the global chat.
Fixed problems with the factory queue not being saved properly