New Co-op Missions, Revamped AI, Skirmish Updates, Refreshed Economy, & More!

Hello Commanders! We know you’ve been waiting for a juicy update, so let’s get to the report! Today’s patch includes a good amount of content: 2 new co-op missions, an additional difficulty tier, and a new mutator system for Galactic War called threat level. There are 2 new maps for versus/skirmish, broad improvements to the AI across all modes, lobby updates that allow more flexibility (1v3, 2v2v2, etc), and large updates to the mercenaries and economies in Versus, Skirmish, and Survival.

We’re moving the new Galactic War commander and the new units to our next major update. The extra time will go toward further refinement as we bring these additions together in an even bigger way for the Steam Autumn Festival in early October, which we’ve been invited to join. We’ll share more in our upcoming trailer.

Additionally, we’ll share our thoughts regarding Galactic War Seasons. One thing to mention now is that we don’t intend to have any long off-seasons like the current one in the future.

General

• Skirmish AI is now smarter and builds units to counter

• AI now casts top bar abilities in Galactic War and Skirmish

• AI now upgrades their Terror Tanks

• Updated many abilities to make them usable by AI

• Double click now requires the actual unit to be clicked twice (previously other sources of selection such as box select unintentionally counted as a click)

• Multiple damage multipliers now use the highest value instead of stacking

• Fixed Resonators not always attacking

Galactic War

Galactic War Mission: Shadowtide

An Endari tide rampages, clamoring for a Flux Core that will allow them to pierce the veil between worlds. Assist Private Gallagher in retrieving the Flux Core before the Endari permanents plunge the planet into their extradimensional hellscape.

Galactic War Mission: Heart of Conflict

Hostile forces have invaded the Koru Gardens that the Cha'Kru Kingdom use to spawn their crustacean allies. Drive them back before they are able to harvest the Koru Hearts.

New Threat Level

A new way to engage with mutators is here! The threat system allows you to enable mutators for every match, not just on specific planets. You can pick from 3 different levels of difficulty, and you can see what mutators you will get before you jump into the game.

We were unhappy with the current state of the mutators and how they interacted with the galactic war map. We felt like they weren’t used enough, and the combinations of mutators were static. This new system is a way to give the mutators a larger role in galactic war and allow for combinations that weren't available before.

Galactic War Mission New Nightmare Difficulty

• Nightmare difficulty added

• Adjusted difficulty scaling

• Adjusted which abilities enemy AI uses based on difficulty

• Fixed an issue with some enemy units being stronger than intended on casual and normal

Galactic War Commander: Aster

Currently there are no balance changes for Aster as he is undergoing a rework.

• Fixed Predator Mine not working properly

Galactic War Commander: Galavax

• Stormbringer range increased by 2

• Idal Conduits Upgrade now costs 30/30, and increases by 5/5 after each upgrade.

We adjusted these values to bring this strategy to a similar power level as alternatives. This change encourages getting a few upgrades early on, but stopping at some point to invest the flux into units, while still allowing the playstyle to exist for anyone who enjoys it.

Galactic War Commander: Vynthra

Vynthra has a rework planned, these changes are intended as a temporary fix while we work towards bigger changes for the commander.

• Keeper armor increased from 0 -> 2

We want the Keeper to be a viable early game tank, especially if infused to make more use out of the armor.

• Harbinger Eruption

  • Cooldown reduced from 16s -> 10s

  • Radius increased from 0.75 -> 1.25

  • Can now hit air

The ability is a core part of the unit's kit, but its effectiveness was limited. These changes are meant to make eruption the primary reason to build Harbingers.

• Stinger

  • Decreased cost from 75 -> 60

  • Decreased production time from 30s -> 20s

Stingers didn’t fulfill their swarm role in Co-op, so these changes should help give Stingers a use case both early on and later in the game.

Galactic War General

• Fixed mastery giving more levels than it should.

This was an unfortunate bug that gave way more mastery per planet than it should have, meaning that things scaled out of control in unintended ways. We are going to be listening closely to player feedback on masteries now that this bug is fixed, and changing them based on their strength for their intended values.

• Added daily XP bonus - you will now earn some extra experience and resources on your first win of the day.

• Updated Arsenal UI

• Victory screen tweaks

• Updated Boomer Next healthbar placement

• Fixed certain destructibles being healable

• Adjusted preplaced units for Xol

• Misc server side bugs fixed (such as planets with pirates not properly switching to be player controlled)

• Fixed holes in Galaxy Map

Campaign

General

• Added transition screens between missions

• Updated minimaps for all missions

• Added quit confirmation popup

• Fixed Hellfires being unable to deal damage after unsieging when certain upgrades were not unlocked

• Updated prospector ability tooltip to include values

Touchdown/Strider

• Fixed Strider color

• Fixed rare bug that disabled victory

• Updated Phobos interaction on Strider

• Fixed Commando animations on Strider

• Fixed Pilot not being able to be talked to again on Strider

Grey Horizons

• Updated Voicelines

Liability Waiver

• Updated scientists models (They are now randomized and can mix and match heads and outfits)

Male scientists are currently disabled while we fix a bug with their randomization

Ship

• Disabled All-Army hotkey

• Improved Tanner’s hair

Sound

• Prospector now uses the correct voicelines

• Updated Avenger attack move sounds

• Added in missing subtitles

Versus/Skirmish/Survival

Hello from the Versus team! This patch should introduce some fun new elements to play around with, focusing primarily around broad economy changes and mercenaries!

Economic changes:

We are changing the amount of hexite gold bases (Main OT) generate, giving us a new lever to adjust the economic flow in the early stages of the match. The goal this time around is to increase the relative value of early game expansions by reducing the gap between the main OT and subsequent ones, allowing expanding players to accrue a more significant hexite advantage over time relative to players staying on one base for extended periods.

*We have also made significant changes to the Flux economy by reducing the harvester cap from enough to fully populate 5 Flux nodes to enough for 4, and introducing a ‘Mine-out’ mechanic similar to the one on Hexite pits. The total number of Flux nodes per map will remain the same, which means there are now more nodes on the map than can be actively populated. *

We felt that 5 Flux nodes early and mid-game were getting close to over-kill in most circumstances, and lategame as the Hexite begins to mine-out and players have purchased their upgrades Flux became the more common ‘excess’ resource, pushing players to look for Flux dumps and making the ‘rarer’ resource feel too plentiful and collapsing potentially interesting choices.

Mercenary unit re-slotting and talent redesigns:

*Over time, we added new Mercenaries to be unlocked via talents. At this stage, we have enough new units to give all Mercenary factions a 5-unit roster. In order to do this, some of the stronger units received redesigns to be slotted and be made available to players in more games. To go along with this we redesigned many of the talents that previously awarded these units to compensate for no longer granting those units. *

Skirmish New Maps: Hillside (6 Players) & Iron Shield (6 Players)

These are co-op maps re-tuned for Skirmish. They can be played with up to 6 players. Let us know if you think any more tweaks are warranted to make them better suited for Skirmish/Versus gameplay

Skirmish Swap Teams

• You can now drag players in a lobby to change their slot, or their team

Use the new maps to play a 2v2v2, or show your friends you really are good enough to 1v3 them

• Lobby now shows which player will spawn at which location

• Fixed Protectorate AI building excessive amounts of striders

Economy

• Main base now starts with all Extractors at game start (previously missing 1)

• Gold Hexite Pit (All main bases are gold)

  • Bonus income rate reduced from +50% -> +33%

  • Max Hexite reduced from 6400 -> 5800

• Flux Nodes

  • Max Flux reduced from 9999 -> 2000

  • Now mines at reduced rate (25%) when depleted

• Max Harvester count reduced by 1 Flux node worth of Harvesters per faction

  • Xol 5 -> 4

  • Protectorate/Grell 10 -> 8

  • Legion 15 -> 12

Legion

• Summoning Obelisk

  • Summoned Thralls no longer have Reanimate debuff

  • Summoned unit count decreased from 12 -> 10

• Inquisitress

  • NEW T2 Upgrade: Wake of Fire

    • Charge now leaves behind a trail of fire dealing 50 dps for 5 seconds

    • Charge increases armor by 3 for buff duration (3s as with the bonus movespeed)

  • One Life For Another

    • Max orbs reduced from 6 -> 3

    • Health gain increased from 1x sacrificed Thrall HP -> 2x

• Kraegar Killer Instinct upgrade now additionally reduces cooldown from 8s -> 4s

Xol

• Removed Tier 2 Upgrades

• Defiant spin damage changed from 20 -> 15 + 50% vs Light

• Eradicator armor reduced from 2 -> 1

Arandi

• Penumbra Ascendant

  • No longer unlocks/spawns 2 Judgements

  • Now grants Penumbra an attack which stuns ground units in an area for 1.5 seconds

  • Now increases Penumbra health by 50%

• Ethermancer

  • Hallucination spawn aura removed (moved to Judgement)

• Judgement

  • Now available from Penumbra without talent

  • Removed on attack buff

  • Gained Hallucination spawn aura

  • Hallucination aura hallucination starting health increased from 25% -> 50%

Endari

• Shadow Leech

  • Spawn count reduced from 4 -> 2

  • Health increased from 80 -> 120

  • Duration increased from 8s -> 12s

  • Slow increased from 25% -> 30%

  • Now has a maximum of 1 per target

  • Can now target allies

    • Grants 30% lifesteal and attack speed

    • Still deals 8 DPS to friendly units

    • Infinite duration until unit dies

Free Corsairs

• Entrenched Hideouts

  • No longer unlocks/spawns 2 Hovercraft

  • Increases sandbag HP by 125 and reduces land delay by 50%

  • Now makes each Outpost spawn a free Corsair Raider every 30 seconds

• Hovercraft

  • Now available from Outpost without talent

  • Starting/Max Mine charges reduced from 3 -> 2

Marran

• Life Path XP Gain reduced from +30% -> +25%

• Bulwark Amplification no longer unlocks/spawns 2 Heavy Troopers

• Heavy Trooper

  • Now available from Bulwark without talent

  • Attack range reduced from 15 -> 9

  • Knockback reduced

Valkaru

• NEW UNIT: Mortar Brute (You may recognize this unit from the campaign)

  • Tier 2

  • AOE attack vs ground

• Fallen Glory

  • Renamed to Pulverizers

  • No longer grants attack speed for nearby dying units

  • Now allows 3 charges of Valkaru Beast

  • Reduces Beast cost from 22 -> 15

• Beast attack leash range increased from 2.5 -> 3 (attack cancelled less often vs fleeing targets)

Misc/Bug Fixes

• Adjusted Xol Hero SFX

• Fixes to Xol merge

• Updated Xol merge hotkeys

• Merge tooltip now correctly shows merge cost

• Adjusted selection circle for some Xol units

• Fixed Stormbringer ability not doing damage on dedicated servers

• Adjusted Terror Tower health bar location

• Adjusted sorting of Arandi units

• Minor Xol visual changes

Misc Smaller Changes

• Updated Veterancy icons

• Fixed The Deep One selection sound

• Updated some out of date tooltips

• Fixed upgrade UI when there is only one upgrade in a tier

• Fixed buildings with turrets having improper weapon range

• Fixed buildings with turrets occasionally not attacking

• Updated Titan weapon and attack VFX

• Updated Xol death VFX

• Lobby music now fades out at match start

• In game system messages are now localized

• Fixed crash related to beam weapon

• Fixed units spawning in areas they would get stuck from Marran Bulwark

• Added SFX for some abilities that were missing them

• Changed color for harvester rally point line

• Misc crash fixes