2v2 Tourney
The month’s 2v2 tourney concluded this weekend. If you missed it (sadly, there were no news posted before it started), you can find more information about it in the tourney thread, view the results on Challonge, and review the commentated replays on ShadowFury’s youtube channel.
Balance
This release has some small and no so small changes. The small changes are minor tweaks to bot factories and the large changes are to sea and gunships.
Shieldbot
Bandit is due a minor buff and Dirtbag is now armed to add options to the Shieldbot opening. The aim is to increase Shieldbot diversity. This may involve an eventual Felon nerf.
Dirtbag:
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Cost 35 -> 30
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Is now armed with a 25 DPS melee attack.
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Sight distance 200 -> 300
Bandit:
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Cost 80 -> 75
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Range 240 -> 245
Outlaw:
Jumpjets
Jumpjets is becoming a reasonable factory but is carried by Pyro. The solution is to hobble the one trick pony. Pyro has only recently become a legitimate raider so this change is experimental.
Pyro:
Moderator:
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Range 410 -> 420
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Significantly increased turnrate and turret turnrate.
Jack:
Gunships
Now that Planes work well we have set our sights on a reasonable Gunship factory. The main thrust of these changes is to make Gunship AA stand up to fighters so a Gunship switch is not instantly countered by opponents who simultaneously switch to Planes.
Plane HP and dedicated AA damage were both reduced by 9%. This effectively makes dedicated AA worse against Gunships and flex AA better against Planes. Krow HP was also reduced by 9% as it mostly interacts with dedicated AA.
Rapier:
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Reload time 4s -> 5s
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Deals 570 Slow Damage.
Brawler flies a bit higher and
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Speed 4 -> 3.7
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Range 500 -> 600
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Weapon velocity 450 -> 420
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Projectiles explode at range (like Flak, Warrior and Stardust).
Trident rework:
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Cost 400 -> 270
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Health 1500 -> 900
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Shoots 540 burst damage with 10 second reload.
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Speed 3.6 -> 3.8
Drones
Drones (Funnelweb, Companion, Reef):
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Drones now spawn as nanoframes suspended above the parent unit.
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The nanoframe builds itself and completes after 3 seconds.
Spiders
Tarantula:
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Reload Time 2 -> 1.9
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Damage 200 -> 220
Cloakybot
Another minor Rocko nerf (the last one was 5% projectile velocity). This should be the last nerf for a long time.
Rocko:
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Health 480 -> 450
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Range 460 -> 455
General Sea Changes
Sea has been reworked with promises from RyMarq to track how it plays and make future improvements. Ships have been rewritten and the sea aspects of Amph and Hover have had changes as well.
Sonar ranges are now significantly lower. This is to increase the sneakiness of underwater units.
Sonar Station:
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Cost 120 -> 40
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Sonar Range 1600 -> 600
Urchin tweaked to be lighter. It is still powerful, but far less defining of sea gameplay.
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Cost 160 -> 100
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Range 590
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Sonar Range 300
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Damage 295 -> 180
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Now has some AoE
Ships
Many ships with particularly low turn rates have had their turn rate increased to be more usable. Many more ships have been reworked.
Skeeter has has a disarm effect and slightly lower normal DPS.
Hunter has become more of a traditional riot unit. It has fairly traditional riot attributes such as AoE and low range. No longer will it dominate everything forced to travel in the water.
Snake is now properly setup as a raider. Less cost and lower stats with more speed.
Enforcer is now a powerful artillery/skirmish unit, capable of firing a salvo of powerful missiles at long range. Weak tracking makes it effectively countered by raiders and other fast units.
Typhoon is more of a traditional assault unit with a slower speed but powerful damage output and increased toughness.
Serpent is much cheaper so should see use earlier. Is now more cleanly countered by those units which can close on it, especially raiders like Duck and Snake. It has had most aspects of it reduced to compensate, including range and speed.
Amphibious
Most notable as far as amphib is concerned are the Sonar range reductions and improvements to the Claymore (which now effectively counters many of their units). The Scallop’s underwater weapon is reworked into a salvo of easy to miss explosives.
Conch:
Scallops now fires a burst of explosives underwater. They gradually accelerate to high speed and have trouble tracking fast enemies.
Hovercraft
Hover primarily had the Claymore adjusted to be more effective against underwater units.
Claymore is now less suicidal with an improved turnrate and slower depth charge. To compensate it deals less damage.
