xREL.v3

Update v2.75:
New Scenario - King of the Hill (Substrate)

The King of the Hill scenario which is receiving some further tweaks this update, is now available to be played as Substrate.

Audio
The game found notification for automatch was not as obvious as it needed to be, as some players were missing it while doing other activities waiting for a game. To make it easier to notice, we are increasing the notification to a longer sound that includes a voice line "Consciousness Expanded." (Their expanded consciousness allows them to connect to the distant world where the battle is taking place. We're also updating the Retributor weapon sound effect as it was quite lacklustre.

Changed automatch game found notification from a chime to a sound followed by a voice line
New and improved audio for Retributor!

New Maps
We have taken some of our best team game maps and converted them to be suitable for 1v1 play.

Mirach 2p, Merga 2p, Ross 128p, and Delta Serpentis 2p are can be played in skirmish and multiplayer games

Ladder Season Reset
Alongside the release of 2.75 is the launch of the season 3 ladder season, the leaderboards have been reset giving everyone a fresh chance and getting to the top. Congrats to Amelie for winning the season 2 ladder!

New Automatch Map Pool
To complement the season 3 ladder reset, we are updating the map pool for automatch. Most significantly, we're removing most of the tiny and small maps and replacing them with larger ones. The game has evolved a lot over the past year, and now with Juggernauts, the late game is a lot more fun which bigger maps help field. Below is the list of new automatch map pool:

• Seginus
• Mirach 2p
• Merga 2p
• Europa
• Delta Serpentis 2p
• Ross 128 2p
• Atwater
• Italia
• Espana
• Ulrich

Economy Changes
We are making some changes to the economy in order to make defensive play styles more viable and encourage some strategic diversity. Contesting resources out on the map should be crucial for success in order to create proper game flow and player interaction, but currently defensive strategies were too weak and aggression overly important. Turinium Generators were providing too much of a resource bonus, despite also accruing victory points, so the player who controlled the Turinium could generally just overpower their opponents with superior economy. Resource Deposits also granted too much base income which meant mass early capturing was crucial even if regions didn't gain Extractors.

Turinium Generator bonus resource income decreased from 10% to 5%
Resource Deposit gain reduced from 0.5 to 0.25
Resource Extractor gain increased from 1.5 to 1.75

Map Changes
Seginus
The bottom spawn had a small advantage due to the direction of of the starting Metal Deposits in relations to the Engineers spawns.

Balanced starting Metal Deposits

Italia
We are incentivizing more control of the sides by moving out one of the base deposits.

Replacing central mountains with hill
Moved a metal deposit from the base to the sides

Merga
Moved starting Generators further away from Nexus to prevent double capping or Nexus weapon engaging creeps
Added additional high ground on starting bases to compensate

Mirach
The Southeastern battlegroups had multiple regions that acted as single region cutoffs, which meant players had to prevent Orbital spawns on multiple regions from having a devastating effect. The bottom left was also so far away from the main battle in the centre, that it was often neglected. We are adding an additional lane from to connect to the bottom left to player's bases to alleviate the severity of the multiple cutoffs and to make the bottom left more active.

Added additional laneway on the bottom of the map
Moved Deposits on starting regions closer to Generator to make capturing while building Extractors easier

Regulus
The strategic diversity of the top left spawn is lowered because there was no metal deposits close enough to the Power Generator to capture while building an Extractor

Moved metal extractors of the top left metal region closer to the Generator

Gamma Draconis
The cutoffs were too brutal in Gamma Draconis given the map size and how a single region could cutoff so much. Cutting off the base resources will be more difficult.

Added additional pathway between each teams two bases
Fixed missing Metal Extractor

Safiere
Added an extra region connecting the players base to the resource regions
Moved a Radioactives region from the corner to the center near the players base
Added a metal extractor in the corner

AI
The Insane AI is supposed to ridiculously overpowered, but it took it a bit too far. Many players are incapable of taking it out even along side 5+ other team mates. It doesn't need to be THIS hard, and it just means players are using other means to make the AI easier, like giving themselves bonus resources or disabling air units. We are lowering the resource bonus of the AI so it is now only insane and not turbo insane.

Insane AI resource bonus reduced from 5x to 4x

Balance
Brute
The Brute is getting a buff so it has more of a role to fill in the late game as a counter to mass and Archers.

Health increased from 120 to 125
Damage increased from 2 to 2.5

Archer
The Archer was still underperforming

Health increased form 70 to 90

Medic
Armor removed

Atlas
Removing the armor-piercing on the Atlas makes it less powerful against Strat Bombers and Harbingers, while the aoe nerf will make it slightly weaker against drones.

Health reduced from 350 to 250
Armor-piercing removed
AOE reduced from 50 to 40
Attack range reduced from 1200 to 1100

Tormentor
The Tormentor was overperforming, in particular against enemy frigates.
AOE reduced from 60 to 40
Minimum range increased from 100 to 300
Energy consumption increased from 6 to 10
Health reduced from 230 to 130

Reaper
The Reaper was slightly over performing.

Damage reduced from 15 to 14
Total health/shields reduced from 200 to 180

Sky Cleanser
Health/shields reduced from 320 to 280

Capacitor

The Capacitor was far too tough.
Total health/shields reduced from 330 to 130

Zeus
The Zeus was overperforming against other Cruisers in large battles due to its heavy splash damage. It’s main gun weapon is getting a huge damage reduction to make it weaker against other Cruisers, but without affecting its performance against most frigates as it still one-shots them. Zeus is also losing health in exchange for a better rate of fire on its main weapon and a damage increase on its secondary to give the Zeus more consistent performance, there was too much variance on how the Zeus performed depending on if it would live long enough to fire an additional volley off. The Secondary weapon buff also will grant better damage against structures.

Zeus Main weapon damage reduced from 400 to 130
Zeus Main weapon cooldown reduced from 8 to 5
Zeus Secondary weapon cooldown reduced from 3.5 to 2.5
Zeus Secondary weapon damage increased from 75 to 145
Zeus health reduced from 1400 to 1100

Avenger
The Avenger is getting a small buff to its secondary weapon which will give it a large increase against buildings but little bonus against frigates.

Avenger secondary increased from 15 to 50
Avenger secondary weapon can now target cruisers and dreadnought

Caregiver
The Caregiver had too much health.

Total health/shields reduced from 1650 to 1350

Apollo
The Apollo and the Artemis are too weak for big PHC cruisers. Increasing their health will see them survive a shot from a Nemesis, on top of receiving a buff to its single target damage output.

Health increased from 680 to 820
Metal cost increased from 290 to 310
Flak Cannon range increased from 800 to 1200
Point Defense Lasers damage increased from 40 to 60
Point Defense Lasers cooldown reduced from 5 to 3

Artemis
Health increased from 680 to 820

Hera
The Hera and Eradicator were too versatile as they had excellent range, could target buildings and were strong against other cruisers and dreadnoughts. We are lowering the range to weaken its performance and prevent it from making the Artemis and Destructor obsolete.

Main gun attack range reduced from 1200 to 1100

Mobile Nullifiers
Mobile Nullifiers lacked the range to comfortably cover an entire army. We are increasing their range to prevent players from needing to manually position their Nullifiers, but increasing their cost to compensate.

Mobile Nullifier range increased from 1000 to 1250
Mobile Nullifier cost increased from 700/400/40 to 800/500/50

Eradicator
We’re increasing the projectile speed of the Eradicator to match the power of its weapon and to lower the amount of overkill for multiple shots firing at the same target. We are also lowering the damage of its secondary weapons to ensure countering it with frigates is more viable.

Main gun projectile speed increased from 700 to 1100
Main gun attack range reduced from 1200 to 1100
Secondary weapon damage reduced from 6 to 4

Experience requirements
Dreadnoughts were leveling up too quickly, which could be frustrating when unlocking multiple instant heal upgrades during a single engagement

Dreadnought & juggernaut experience requirements increased by 50%

Hyperion
The Hyperion’s self healing hull regenerated health far too quickly.

Self healing hull heal rate lowered from 0.25 to 0.125
Autocannon range reduced from 800 to 400 and removed air attack
Autocannon damage reduced

Prometheus
We are giving additional health to the dreadnought destroyers to compensate for their higher costs compared to other classes of dreadnoughts.

Health increased from 14,000 to 16,000
autocannon range reduced from 800 to 400 and removed air attack

Substrate Dreadnoughts
Substrate Dreadnoughts were still to vulnerable to mass Athena or Mauler. We want to encourage people to rely on Nemesis and Eradiactors for countering Dreadnoughts.

Armor increased from 55% to 60

Retributor
Since the Overmind and Cronos are getting more dedicated anti-air attacks, the anti-air capabilities of other dreadnoughts is being removed. It's also losing some of its cooldown on the main weapon so it's better and rapidly switching fire between low tier units.

Main weapon cooldown reduced from 5 seconds to 3
Retributor autocannon range reduced from 600 to 400 and removed air attack
Autocannon damage reduced

Savager
The Executor upgrade was not strong enough given it's the Savager's only primary weapon upgrade and it comes at lvl 4. For comparison, the default weapon does 60 damage.

Total health/shields increased from 14,000 to 16,000
Executor damage increased from 75 to 90

Overmind
The Overmind and Nest of the Queen had potent anti-air damage, but were easily shut down by Strategic Bombers due to the splash damage knocking out all of the drones. To give more consistent anti-air and to further refine the role of these units, the Overmind and Queen are losing one of their Drone Swarms in exchange for a set of invulnerable Anti-air drones, whiletThe Overmind is also being made more vulnerable to anti-drone units and losing some secondary damage. The movement speed increase of many cruisers such as the Nemesis will also be an indirect nerf to the Overmind's anti-ground performance as it will have more difficulty evading backwards out of range.

Loses one its drone swarms in exchange for an anti-air drone swarm which is invincible.
Time to replace lost Drone swarms increased from 0.5 to 2 seconds
Secondary weapon damage reduced from 20 to 10
Secondary weapon accuracy increased from 75 to 100

Cronus
The Cronos is underused compared to the other PHC Dreadnoughts and as a result is getting a bigger role to fill. It’s receiving a large buff to its secondary weapons, which are rail guns rather than autocannons, and they’re being able to target air. The Cronos will now also provide a soft anti-air role, albeit not as strong as the Overmind as it the railguns have a limited firing arc. The large increase to the railgun damage also buffs its anti-ground damage, so to compensate the primary missile attack is losing its armor-piercing to lower the performance against dreadnoughts but while still retaining the same power against buildings.

Cronus Railguns damaged increased from 20 to 60
Cronus Rainguns accuracy increased from 80 to 100
Cronus Railguns now has 20% armor-piercing
Cronus Railguns can now target air
Cronus Primary missile attack armor-piercing reduced to 20%

Agamemnon
The Agamemnon was being neglected in the late game over the Leonidas, so it’s receiving a health buff to match the Leonidas.

Agamemnon health increased from 50,000 to 60,000

Nest of the Queen
Removed one drone swarm and two repair drone swarms
Now has two anti-air drone swarms which are invincible.
Nest of the Queen health/shields increased from 40,000 to 45,000

Leonidas
As difficult as it is to test late game balance, it become clear the Leonidas was over performing and which gave PHC an edge in the very late game situations. The Leonidas is intended to dual any other Juggernaut, but it wasn’t weak enough against the unit types designed to counter it. We are removing its anti-air capabilities and weakening its secondary weapons to make overwhelming it with air or low tier ground units is more viable, which also makes the Agamemnon more desirable to complement it.

The Leonidas is also receiving a cost increase to match the Eye of Darkness, but retains the devastating range and damage advantage since the Eyel area of effect damage. There’s also a number of other changes which indirectly will make countering the Leonidas easier, such as the Fury nerf, changes to Nukes and the cruiser speed adjustment which makes the anti-Leonidas unit mixes more effective.

Leonidas Autocannon air attack removed
Leonidas Secondary weapon cooldown increased from 2 seconds to 8
Leonidas Autocannon damage reduced from 14 to 7
Metal cost increased from 20,000 to 22,000
Radioactives cost increased from 7000 to 8000
Quanta cost increased from 1000 to 1200
Logistics cost increased from 250 to 300
Build time increased from 800 to 900

Searcher
There’s no gameplay reason for this change, it just was weird having a unit with only a single health point. This makes it more consistent with other Substrate units.

Health increased from 1 to 125 in exchange for 125 shields

Fury
The Fury was overperforming a bit compared to the Dominator since its missile attack allowed it to fire even when it wasn’t facing the enemy target.

Fury Atropos Missiles Damage from 75 to 65

Hades
Due to the movement speed bonuses of Frigates and many cruisers, the Hades is getting a projectile speed buff so it isn’t made relatively weaker.

Projectile speed increased from 50 to 60

Air Marauder
The Air Marauder was a good unit for harassment of extractors and buildings, but lacked the punch against units. We’re giving it a small amount of armor piercing to grant better performance against units but without making it too good for harassment.

Air Marauder now has 20% armor piercing

Air Rampager
The Air Rampager was far too powerful, and was dominating the battlefield. It is receiving some heavy nerfs to put its performance in line with other aircraft and make countering it easier.

Total health/shields reduced from 1700 to 1200
Max speed reduced from 500 to 450
Cooldown increased from 0.5 to 0.65
Shield regeneration reduced from 12 to 4

Air Harbinger
Damage increased from 250 to 300
Attack range reduced from 900 to 800

Strategic Bomber
Area of effect reduced from 300 to 250

Nexus
It as possible to cheese your opponents on some maps by spawning in an Engineer/Avatar next to their nexus and build a hidden armory. The sight range increase on the Nexus will make it more difficult to this on certain maps.

Sight range increased from 1000 to 1500

Dreadlaunch & Advanced Assembly
The dreadnought production structures had a negligible cost but were vulnerable to being sniped with only 10,000 health which could be frustrating due to the cost of juggernauts.. We are increasing their health and cost to make it more difficult to snipe a Dreadlaunch part way through building a juggernaut.

Health increased from 10,000 to 15,000
Cost increased from 300/320 to 500/420

Smarty
Basic defenses were too cheap and quick to build for how much value they provided. Rushing these defenses on key choke points could lock down the map. Increasing their cost will make early frigate aggression more viable, while the Smarty is receiving a damage buff to be stronger against cruisers but not stronger vs frigates due to overkilling.

Damage increased from 80 to 100
Metal cost increased from 150 to 200
Build time increased from 28 to 35

Annihilator
Build Time increased from 35 to 38
Metal cost increased from 200 to 230

Artillery Post
The performance of the Artillery post varies depending on the map, but in some situations massing them was too effective and frustrating to play against.

Radioactives cost increased from 240 to 340

Barrager
Priorities changed to put Cruisers and Dreadnoughts above Frigates

Sentinel
The Sentinel and Pulverizer were overperforming against Dreadnoughts due to their high armor-piercing which discouraged people from upgrading to the Oblivion and Exterminator turrets, resulting in them being neglected.

Armor-piercing reduced from 40% to 20%

Drone MRV

The range and AOE on the Drone MRV made it far too effectively against frigates.

AOE reduced from 100 to 60

Pulverizer
The Pulverizer and Exterminator had too much rangem making countering them with artillery difficult. The Pulverizer range was noted to be reduced in 2.71 but was unintentionally left out. It was also over performing against Frigates due to its continuous beam, so it’s getting a cooldown in between shots to make it weaker against frigates.

Pulverizer range reduced from 1000 to 900
Armor-piercing reduced from 100% to 20%
Cooldown increased from 0.16 to 1.5
Priorities changed to put Cruisers and Dreadnoughts above Frigates

Exterminator
Exterminator range reduced from 1100 to 1000

Constable
The Constable and Blossom launcher were documented in the 2.71 update as receiving an increase to their damage, but these changes were unintentionally left out. The basic anti-air defenses will now perform better for their cost.

Damage increased from 60 to 75

Blossom Launcher
Damage increased from 20 to 24

Falcon
The Falcon was underperforming

Damage increased from 20 to 26
Health increased from 4000 to 5500

Air Eliminator
The Air Eliminator is receiving a reduction in its cooldown to give it better performance, in particular against light aircraft.

Cooldown reduced from 5 to 2
Health increased from 7000 to 7500

StarBurst
Cooldown increased from 0.5 to 1
Total health & shields increased from 4000 to 5500

Sky Ender
Damage increased from 50 to 60
Total health/shields increased from 7000 to 7500

Emergency & Serpentine Turret
These Orbital turrets scale poorly into the late game as army sizes become large, so they are receiving a reduction in their Quanta ramp up so they have more of a role to fill outside of just the early game.

Quanta cost increase per cast decreased from +25% to +15%

Nano-Mesh Barrier
Nano-Mesh Barrier also didn't scale well into the late game because the +2000 health is fixed and not a percentage that increases with Quantum Upgrades. It's ramp up is being lowered to give it more usability as the game progresses.

Quanta cost increase per cast decreased from +25% to +15%

Intensive Care
Intensive Care (PHC) heals 2400 health over 30 seconds, compared to Regenerate (Substrate) which restores 2000 shields over 10 seconds. In almost all cases, the quicker heal per second of Regenerate is beneficial, so we are increasing the amount provided in Intensive Care but increasing their Quanta cost given the amount of value they can provide.

Total healing increased from 1200 to 2400
Quanta cost increased 100 to 125

Regenerate
Quanta cost increased 100 to 125

Carving Turret
Quanta cost increased from 150 to 180
Quanta cost increase per cast increased from +10% to +25%
Cooldown increased from 10 seconds to 15

Incursion
Cost increased from 150 to 200

Plasma Storm
Quanta cost increased from 250 to 300
Quanta cost increase per cast increased from +25% to +30%

Nanite Assasination
Quanta cost increased from 200 to 250

Orbital Strike & Antimatter Detonation

The “Nuke” abilities were far too powerful, and would often determine how games are decided. They are getting a cost increase to justify their ability to decimate entire cruiser armies or lines of structures. Orbital Strike costs more since it has a large radius, despite having slightly less damage.

Antimatter Detonation Quanta cost increased from 600 to 900
Orbital Strike detonation Quanta cost increased from 600 to 1000
Quanta cost increase per cast increased from +25% to +30%

Movement Speed Changes
We are increasing the movement speed of many units to make it more consistent among unit tiers and for the game flow better. Increasing the movement speed will also make it easier to evacuate Orbital Abilities such as Plasma Storm, "nukes" and to evade Strategic Bombers. Frigates, in particular, are getting a large speed boost to allow them to better out maneuver tougher cruisers and be more viable for harassment.

Brute max speed increased from 120 to 150
Archer max speed increased from 110 to 150
Medic max speed increased from 120 to 150
Martyr max speed increased from 130 to 150
Reaper max speed increased from 110 to 150
Sky Cleanser max speed increased from 110 to 150
Sky Cleanser acceleration increased from 180 to 400
Capacitor max speed increased from 110 to 150
Tormentor acceleration reduced from 400 to 180
Apollo max speed increased from 84 to 100
Destructor max speed increased from 78 to 100
Drone hive max speed increased from 70 to 100
Drone Hive acceleration reduced from 120 to 70
Artemis max speed increased from 78 to 100
Nemesis max speed increased from 72 to 100
Nemesis acceleration reduced from 120 to 70
Caregiver max speed reduced from 150 to 120
Mauler max speed reduced from 125 to 100
Avenger max speed increased from 100 to 100
Masochist max speed reduced from 150 to 100
Hera max speed increased from 60 to 72
Eradicator max speed increased from 60 to 72
Prometheus max speed increased from 68 to 72

Campaign
Yorkshire
Yorkshire was introducing too many things at once to new players. It will be less overwhelming without the Sky Factory. Mac was also too powerful in this mission and would carry the player too much.

Removed access to Advanced Sky Factory
Lowered the AI "Difficulty" level of Mac on all campaign difficulty levels.

Calethaon
Due to the move speed changes, the waves of enemy units will arrive faster. We are delaying the first wave in order to prevent this mission from becoming more difficult

Delayed started wave by 10 seconds

Decanus
To compensate for Incursion cost increased

Starting quanta Increased from 150 to 250
Fixed issue where Atlas was not buildable

Silgul (Legacy Change)

Silgul received some changes in the 2.71 update aimed at making it more difficulty, but was not documented in the change log.

Increased number of starting buildings the enemy AI receives when playing on hard and expert

Auctor (Genesis mission 6)

Some of the mountains were causing pathing issues

Replaced some mountains with hills

Scenarios
Oblivion
Increased AI difficulty when playing on hard and expert

Implosion
Changed move order of starting engineer so it doesn't end on top of a region

Mountaintop
Added additional Radioactives

King of the Hill
One of our top players was able to “beat” this mission by holding out for long enough that the mission stops becoming more difficult. We are adding additional challenges for players who manage to last over an hour, and removing one of the huge early difficulty spikes.

Can now be played as Substrate
Removed Victory Point win condition
Fixed issue where Metal Extractor wasn’t belonging to the Generator it was closest to.
Delayed first enemy wave by 10 seconds
Added several waves of Air Harbingers and Strategic Bombers that spawn at a random location on the map starting at 46 minutes and ramp up in intensity over time.
Added a hidden unkillable Sensor Tower with unlimited range to ensure enemy units can attack up the high ground at 75 minutes
Added additional weapon upgrades to player 3 at 75 minutes (The one who gets the Experimental Eye of Darkness Juggernauts)
Removed waves of furies
Removed two of the Cronos and Prometheus spawns from their 4x spawn

Bug fixes
Fixed targeting issue with Athena main gun
Fixed a bug where upgrading Smarties and Constables would be instantly destroyed when taking damage.
Fixed an unbuildable Metal Deposit on Nightshade
Fixed an error in the DPS tooltip calculations. Many DPS tooltips will change despite their actual damage remaining the same.
Fixed a bug where the Carving Turret didn't have an explosion or SFX upon death