PA Consultants Update #2: Defender’s Advantage Update

Greetings Commanders! Sparks of activity have been observed in armament research facilities and have resulted in new weapons of war that you can roll out onto the battlefield. Not only this, but there were rumors that armies have been sighted operating without a central commander brain controlling them. This update has been installed on all commanders, resulting in a brand new game mode: Eradication! 

Developed by the team of Community Consultants, 3 new units have been added to your arsenal as well as a brand new way to play Planetary Annihilation! Read on to find out more about these new ways to wage war, all with a brand new Ranked Season! 

3 Brand New Units

**Nyx **Advanced Radar Jamming Vehicle

A compact and mobile version of its structural sibling, the Nyx hides nearby allied units from enemy radar and provides radar vision to your own forces over a large area. Excellent for sneaking up on unsuspecting opponents and for countering long-range artillery that relies on radar for targeting. The Nyx continues to provide radar jamming when it’s loaded in transports, so beware of sneaky drops!

Kessler Homing Orbital Mine

Unlike its surface and water counterparts, the Kessler Orbital mine is always visible and semi-mobile. When an enemy orbit unit enters range, the kesler will home-in on its target and explode on impact. This makes it incredibly useful for defending against orbital snipes, however it’s still vulnerable to ships that have already entered the orbital layer of your planet.

**Ward **Advanced Anti-Nuke Vehicle

Armed with a single interceptor missile on a long cooldown, the Ward is perfect for guarding your armies from defensive nukes. It can even hover over water and lava. While the Ward is less metal efficient than a regular Anti-Nuke structure, it’s mobility can be of great use when escorting late game armies or securing a zone for planetary invasion.

Brand new game mode: Eradication

This new game mode takes the focus away from commanders; the fight can now continue even after commanders have been destroyed! Instead, you must eradicate all remaining fabricators, factories or sub-commanders. You can choose the extent of eradication required from the game lobby to determine what the new victory condition will be.

Can be set in the lobby to:

• Support Commanders

• Fabricators

• Factories

• or any combination of the 3!

Dynamic Alliances game mode update!

Alliances will now automatically break up when there is only 1 team remaining alive unless "alliance victory" is enabled

Lobby and UI

• added Twitch integration to main menu

• added Youtube integration to main menu

• The News page will now correctly update with information about the latest patch

(thanks to rich for hosting the relevant services, check out his https://ggleaderboards.com)

Ranked Reset and Season 14

The 1v1 ladder has been reset: Enter Ranked Season 14! Featuring 20 maps including new maps…

Duration: June 2025 - December 2025

Whoever stands on top of the ladder at the end of the season will receive the legendary Beast Commander!

There are 11 Brand new maps:

• Abandoned Facility

• Abyss (by NikolaMX)

• Arctic (by N30N)

• Experiencia

• Forge Rebirth (by Ferretmaster)

• Mean Time

• Mukden (by Quildtide)

• Shoreline LE

• Phang Shores

• Solitude

• Sunbaked Gully

9 Returning maps from previous seasons:

• Crag

• Demi-Mirum

• Fluviaat

• Nitre

• Periculo

• Ribbon

• Steps

• Tempo

• Tia

Balance

Our goal was to reduce the imbalance between how useful fast units like the Dox, Piranha and Slammers are compared to their slower counterparts. In addition we want to strengthen more specialized units like the Drifter, Bluehawk and Stryker so that each of them can shine in its own role.

General

All units now leave the same proportion of metal in their wreckage: equal to half of their original build cost, resulting in more consistent wreckage. Wreckage fields will now yield more metal overall than before.

Commander

• Base Commander (applies to all commanders)

wreckage_health_frac added and set to 1 (increase from the default 0.5)

death nuke splash_radius increased from 110 to 130

death nuke damage increased from 2000 to 3000

death nuke initial_radius increased from 20.0 to 30

death nuke full_damage_splash_radius increased from 20 to 30

splash_damages_allies set to false

upscaled visual effect of the commander death nuke

The explosion when a commander dies is visually very similar to nukes, but somewhat disappointing in its damage, and frustrating in its ability to decimate a teammate’s base. 

It will now do considerably more damage over a larger area, meaning you can use your last vengeful moments to wipe out the army that destroyed you. Additionally the explosion no longer does damage to friendly units which should help out with Team Game dynamics.

Air

• Base Flyer (applies to all air units)

wreckage_health_frac increased from 0.7 to 1

• Fabrication Aircraft

max_health increased from 25 to 100

Air fabs can now survive being hit by a single fighter missile. This will make Air fab plays a little bit more forgiving in the early game and for inexperienced players who overbuild them.

• Firefly

UNITTYPE_Offense added

max_health increased from 20 to 85

build_metal_cost increased from 60 to 100 Currently the Firefly is too cheap for an early game unit. This makes early game scouting very easy and sneaky early strategies that much harder to execute. Increasing the cost of the Firefly should add some choice to which air unit you want to build first. However, it  is now more durable and can survive at least one hit before being destroyed.

• Pelican

UNITTYPE_Offense added

• Icarus

Added maintain_priority_target and set it to false (the same fix we gave the spark last patch)

UNITTYPE_Offense added

Fireflies, Pelicans and Icarus will now select with your other air units by default when using the “select all air” hotkey.

• Hornet

max_health increased from 500 to 600

Updated missile FX and model

Hornets are now more durable to compensate for the re-introduction of Stryker AA and the increase in damage of Gil-Es: 2 of the Hornet’s main counters.

• Horsefly

Updated description

Can now target air units

splash_damage increased from 0 to 15

splash_radius increased from 0 to 3

projectiles_per_fire decreased from 4 to 2

damage increased from 10 to 15 removed AT_Air

Horseflies are very similar to Kestrels, only better in every single way. These changes aim to give them their own role by decreasing their overall DPS while maintaining their signature durability. Additionally they will now be able to target other Air units, but don’t expect them to win any fights against fighters on their own!

• Zeus

wreckage_health_frac removed, will now be the same as Base Flyer

splash_radius increased from 40 to 50

death explosion splash_damages_allies set to false

Structures

• Air Factory

factory_cooldown_time increased from 2 to 4

• Advanced Air Factory

factory_cooldown_time increased from 2 to 4

Air Factories have had uncharacteristically low cooldown times compared to other factory types. This change aims to decrease the viability of “Air Boost” strategies.

• Teleporter

max_health decreased from 9750 to 7000    

build_metal_cost increased from 800 to 1000

Corrected a nav mesh bug in the model

These nerfs to teleporters aim to make them harder to spam and easier to take down, particularly in the context of interplanetary invasions with orbital fabs.

• Catapult

rate_of_fire decreased from 0.4 to 0.25

initial_velocity increased from 80 to 120.0

max_velocity increased from 80 to 120.0

Updated missile FX and model

Fixed syntax errors in the animation tree. Catapult animations will now play correctly.

target_priorities added:

    Mobile & Advanced

    Commander

    Mobile - Air

    Structure - Wall

    Wall

Catapults combine an incredible range and damage output which has made them too strong in the late game and Free For Alls. These changes aim to lower their ability to melt through entire armies while making them better at taking out high-value T2 units.

• Advanced Torpedo Launcher

surface_and_air sight reduced from 200 to 160

underwater sight reduced from 200 to 160

Krakens will now be able to use their radar stealth to get close enough to attack Advanced Torpedo Launchers without being spotted and fired upon.

Land

• Base Bot

wreckage_health_frac increased from 0.7 to 1

• Base Vehicle

wreckage_health_frac increased from 0.7 to 1

• Ares

wreckage_health_frac removed, will now be the same as Base Vehicle

death exlosion splash_damages_allies set to false

• Atlas

wreckage_health_frac removed, will now be the same as Base Bot

death exlosion splash_damages_allies set to false

The Ares, Atlas and Zeus no longer damage allies when they are destroyed.

• Bot Fabricator

energy use when building decreased from 600 to 525

metal use when building decreased from 8 to 7

Bot fabs benefit from a very low cost combined with excellent speed. This has made them incredibly good at rushing to and locking down a forward position early in the game. The buildrate reductions we are introducing make Bot Fabs less suitable for more expensive construction projects, while still being good enough to rapidly build metal extractors all over the map.

• Dox

rate_of_fire decreased from 1 to 0.9 In combination with buffs to the Dox’s main counters, this change aims to reduce the deadliness of Dox only army compositions.

• Spark

max_range increased from 65 to 67.5

ammo lifetime increased from 0.5 to 1 (restored to original value now that the AoE bug is fixed)

Minor range increase to compensate for the Stryker range buff.

• Skitter

UNITTYPE_Offense added (will now select with other combat units)

• Stryker

move_speed decreased from 17 to 15

max_range increased from 75 to 80

WL_Air added to target layers

The Stryker has lacked its own identity. Our goal with this iteration is to turn it into a flexible defensive vehicle that can hold its own against smaller raiding parties while not dominating the Dox as a raiding unit. The addition of AA targeting should help tackle some of the problems that Vehicles have against air units, in particular the Angel, Hornet, Wyrm and Icarus.

• Drifter

damage increased from 120 to 125

initial_velocity increased from 150 to 300

max_velocity increased from 150 to 300

 ammo flight_type set to Seeking

 ammo turn_rate set to 30

 ammo lifetime decreased from 2 to 1

idle_aim_delay increased from 3 to 5

target_priorities updated to

    Mobile & Advanced

    Commander

    Mobile - Air

    Structure - Wall

    Wall

Current drifters are a more expensive, less durable version of the Ant. The increased damage and adjusted ammo targeting mean they will now prioritise T2 units and will take out enemy ants in 2 shots instead of 3. While they still lose in head to head engagements with slammers, they will now be better at holding their ground with proper inferno support.

• Vanguard

rate_of_fire decreased from 1 to 0.75 radar removed passive energy consumption removed

Vanguards are a bit too good at clearing armies of cheap units which makes them very difficult to take down with traditional counters like boombots and dox. This nerf aims to lessen that problem. Additionally the Vanguard’s radar has been removed and given to the new jamming unit, the Nyx.

• Colonel

wreckage_health_frac removed, will now be the same as Base Bot

• Slammer

UNITTYPE_Sub added. Will no longer be ignored by torpedo weapons when submerged

damage decreased from 100 to 60

rate_of_fire increased from 4 to 6

Slammers have been the dominant T2 unit in PA for a long while; they’re the only T2 unit that can fight pretty much everything in T1. These changes aim to make a bit more specialised for clearing cheap fodder while becoming slightly worse at dealing with durable targets such as tanks.

• Locust

build_metal_cost increased from 260 to 500

max_health increased from 80 to 160

rate_of_fire increased from 5 to 10

move_speed decreased from 40 to 35

surface_and_air and underwater vision increased from 40 to 45

Locusts in their current state are stuck being too expensive to mass produce while also being too weak to send out around the map alone. This scale-up will make them more in line with the cost of other T2 bot units, making it easier to justify building a couple and still getting value.

• Gil-E

damage increased from 350 to 500

rate_of_firedecreased from 0.25 to 0.2

Adjusted to fit more of a high damage sniper role.

• Bluehawk

damage decreased from 750 to 300

max_health increased from 200 to 1000

build_metal_cost decreased from 800 to 700

rate_of_fire increased from 0.2 to 0.3

max_range decreased from 200 to 180

For many years the bluehawk has been used as purely an anti vehicle/orbital counter and completely countered by Gil-Es. The various changes here seek to move its role to more of a heavy skirmisher. Its health now fits its bulk and it can be near the frontlines, adding an option to your army compositions.

Sea

 - Base Ship

wreckage_health_frac increased from 0.7 to 1

• Naval fab

max_health increased from 100 to 150

move_speed increased from 10 to 12

turn_speed increased from 90 to 120

These changes should make expanding feel a bit more comfortable.

• Piranha

move_speed decreased from 20 to 18

max_health decreased from 175 to 150

projectile lifetime decreased from 3 to 1.5 s

Piranhas are overperforming significantly and dominate most naval matches. The speed decrease aims to make them less capable of running freely around the map while the HP decrease should weaken their matchup with Orcas and Narwhals.

• Narwhal

AA weapon rate_of_fire decreased from 3 to 2.5

AA weapon max_range decreased from 150 to 120

torpedo weapon damage decreased from 250 to 200

Narwhals are overperforming, especially against Orcas. The nerf to their AA aims to make them slightly more vulnerable to T1 and especially T2 Air.

• Stingray

initial_velocity increased from 80 to 120

max_velocity increased from 80 to 120

lifetime decreased from 60 to 40

Updated missile FX and model

Stingray missiles will now more effectively hunt down faster aircraft like Horseflies and Fighters.

• Squall (Typhoon drone)

build_metal_cost updated from 90 to 30 to reflect the real metal cost of squalls (no gameplay changes)

guard_radius decreased from 250 to 100

surface_and_air and underwater view range decreased from 150 to 50

Squalls will now be more dependent on vision from other allied units.

Orbital

• Omega

side-guns max_range decreased from 150 to 130

Other Improvements and Bugfixes

System Editor

• added CSG brush icons for all hidden CSG (courtesy of Ares Lord)

• added beta version of height adjustments tracker (by Ferretmaster)

UI

• added discord logo to main menu discord button

• added visible timer to ranked disconnection, you will now know exactly how long is left until a technical victory

• separated out game name and system name in the replay browser

• added a map pack section to the community mod manager

• community mod manager now tells you if a mod is locally installed

Bug FIxes and QoL

• fixed the longstanding tree AoE bug, aka the “spark bug” - fixed bug where displayed hp would bug out at low values

• fixed ice planets biome not visually showing in the load planet section

• fixed metal weapons showing they draw power instead of metal(lob etc)

• improved special weapon alerts behaviour (big orange alerts for planet smashing/laser)

• planet list drop down is now automatically opened after landing

• removed the darkest black and blue team colors from the available selection