• Balance

  • Heavy weapons now deal 2.2x damage and 3.0x mass  (back to original values, had previously been 2.5x damage and 3.5x mass).

  • Munitions mass increased to 4 (from 2)

  • Models

    • Artillery mass decreased to 8 (from 12)

    • Bastion bonus structure increased to 200 (from 100) and mass decreased to 8 (from 12)

    • Cruiser bonuses increased  (40-->50 structure, 4->5% block, 8->10% power, 8->10% accuracy) and mass increased to 10 (from 8)

• Bugs and Code Improvements

  • Munitions now correctly applies a 30% bonus to power, rather than the undocumented value of 40%.

• Highlights

  •  Unit defenses have been improved across the board, making fights harder to resolve in an initial volley.   Due to increased survivability, minerals per asteroid have been decreased (while they take the same amount of time to mine) to avoid battlefields becoming too stagnant with surplus units.

  • Expanded the KD Tree System to improve efficiency

• General

  • Nodes provide an average of 14 resources (down from 16)

• Weapons

  • Electromagnetic Pulse radius increased to 500 (from 400) and use time decreased to 60 (from 100)

  • Gravitational Rift mass decreased to 20 (from 30), radius decreased to 250 (from 350), duration decreased to 6 seconds (from 8), and pull force increased.  Now correctly applies mass to affect pull force, similar to Pullbeam.

  • Energy Web radius decreased to 500 (from 600) 

  • Command Relay power bonus increased to 20 (from 20) 

  • Missile duration is reduced so that it no longer extends past the max range on a miss.

• Defense Rework

  • Light frames structure increased to 300 from 250 and has 0 base block.

  • Medium frame structure increased to 500 from 400 and has 5 base block.

  • Heavy frame structure increased to 700 from 550 and has 10 base block

  • Assault frame structure increased to 900 from 700 and has 15 base block

  • Shield increased to 250 shield and 4 block (from 200 shield and 3 block)

  • Plating increased to 400 plating and 10 block (from 300 plating and 6 block)

• Mods

  • New

    • ZeusMod (Lightning Bolt) implemented.  Chance for lasers to deal double damage and stun for a short duration.

    • AthenaMod (Tactical X) implemented.  Increases area-of-effect of weapons.

    • NarcissusMod (Mirror Shield / Drive) implemented.  Doubles efficacy of Barrier or Speed Boost.

    • SisyphusMod (Rift / EMP Repeater) implemented.  Reduces cooldown of paired weapon by 40%

    • HadesMod (Stygian Beam / Shot) duration increased to 24 (from 12)

  • Changes

    • KratosMod (Impact Cannon) now has a 25% accuracy penalty

    • PythiaMod (Omen Beam) has duration increased to 8 (from 6)

    • DionysusMod (Revelry Beam) has duration increased to 8 (from 6)

    • CerberusMod (Inferno Launcher) damage increased to 40 over 8 seconds (from 30 over 10 seconds) and mass increased to 6 (from 2).  This means it does more damage than additional missiles, but applies over time.  It is no longer lighter than an additional missile.

• Bugs and Code Improvements

  • Reworked both pull and push code to be more consistent, applying the Push and Pull conditions.

• Core

  • Weapons no longer require the target to stay in range for the duration of the use time in order to attack.  As long as a target is in range at the moment you activate the weapon, you'll be able to complete the action.  This change is designed to reduce tedious optimizations around maximum range, especially when related to buffs like Omen.

  • Player Difficulty no longer scales starting resources, but does scale unit health.  (This makes handicaps stronger)

  • BaseShip power increased to 400% (from 100%) and  fire rate reduced to 100% (from 300%).  In addition, it uses a HeavyLaser instead of a HeavyAutocannon

  • Optimized core code for getting units by team, increasing efficiency of a number of methods

  • Methods

    • getFleetValueUnitPercentage() replaces the old method getFleetValuePercentage()

      • This provides the % of the fleet's total value from units of the specified type

    • getFleetValueComponentPercentage() was added

      • This provides the % of the fleet's total value from units that are carrying a specific component

• Weapons

  • RepairBeam healing reduced to 6 (from 12) and cooldown reduced to 60 (from 150)

  • Pullbeam range reduced to 500 (from 600)

  • Missile duration has been increased by 10%

  • Missile use time decreased by 60 and cooldown increased by 60

  • Laser use time decreased by 30 and cooldown increased by 30

  • Collector slow effect on use increased to 40 (from 20)

  • Collector pull effect on resources increased to 160 (from 40)

• Frames

  • Light frame cost reduced to 12 (from 18)

  • Medium frame cost reduced to 20 (from 24)

  • Heavy frame cost reduced to 28 (from 30)

• Mods

  • New

    • AchillesMod (Final Shot) implemented. Destroys units with less than 100 structure.

    • PythiaMod (Oracle Beam) is implemented, providing the Omen buff.  This improves the target's range and accuracy for 4 seconds.  

    • HadesMod (Stygian Beam / Shot) is implemented, providing the Decay buff.  This reduces the duration of buffs on the target and prevents them from being repaired for the duration.

  • Changes

    • KratosMod (Impact Cannon) mass increased to 6 (from 2)

    • DionysusMod (Revelry Beam) duration increased to 6 seconds (from 4) and power bonus decreased to 20 (from 50).

    • PythiaMod (Oracle Beam) duration increased to 6 seconds (from 4)

    • ApolloMod (Solar Beam) now applies the Glory buff, which reduces duration of debuffs (rather than removing them instantly) and provides a bonus to the target's healing recieved.

    • PoseidonMod (Tidal Blast) push effect increased to 50 (from 35), but reduced by the target's mass (as a percentage)

• UI/UX

  • Added UI elements to display the number of units and lost of each type by each player

• Maps

  • Delphi Temple spacing and colors changed

• Bugs

  • Gravitational Rift now correctly has a max range of 600, rather than 0.

  • Command Relay now correctly adds 20% damage, rather than 120% damage.

• Core

  • Movement

    • Rather than slowing by 50% when using a weapon, each weapon has a value called UseSlow which determines how much it slows the movement while in use.

    • Multiple weapon uses stack this slow penalty

• Core

  • Difficulty 

    • Modifiers now apply to starting resources

    • For example, a team with 120% difficulty will start with 60 * 1.2 = 72 resources

  • Music

    • Doubled the number of music tracks in the game

    • Added feature to display the name and artist at the start of a match

    • Added team-specific music.  Always based on the right-hand team.

  • Splash Screen

    • Added system to have randomized load screens

• Ships

  • Frames

    • Light Frames mass increased from 10 to 18

    • Medium Frame mass increased from 20 to 24

    • Heavy Frame mass decreased from 32 to 30

    • Assault Frame mass decreased from 40 to 36
      
      

• Components

  • General

    • Heavy components increased to 3.5x base mass (from 3x)

  • Weapons

    • Autocannon accuracy increased to 25 (from 20)

    • Laser accuracy increased to 50 (from 40)

    • Missile damage reduced to 30 (from 32)

    • Collector mass reduced to 20 (from 30)

    • Drillbeam mass reduced to 20 (from 40)

    • RepairBeam cooldown is increased to 150 (from 120).

    • Pullbeam pull effect decreased to 4 (from 5) 

    • Pullbeam range decreased to 600 (from 700)

    • Electromagnetic Pulse radius decreased to 400 (from 600)

    • Electromagnetic Pulse duration decreased to 180 (from 240)

    • EnergyWeb mass decreased to 10 (from 20)

    • EnergyWeb radius increased to 600 (from 500)

  • Upgrades

    • Shield mass increased to 4 (from 2)

    • Shield recovery time has been increased to 6 seconds (from 4)

    • Munitions mass decreased to 2 (from 4)

  •  Mods

    • Changes

      • KratosMod (Impact Canon) has duration reduced to 1 frame (down from 30)

      • PoseidonMod (Tidal Blast) no longer causes a penalty to weapon use time and cooldown

    • New

      • HermesMod (Swiftflight Missile) is implemented.  Converts 80% of the weapon's use time into cooldown.  This means you can more easily move while firing.

      • ApolloMod (Solar Beam) is fully rebuilt.  It now removes negative conditions on the target.

      • PerseusMod (Aegis Beam) is implemented, providing a brief Fortify buff and allows healers to repair shields.

      • DionysusMod (Revelry Beam) is implemented, providing the Revelry buff.  This improves the target's power and speed for 4 seconds.
        
        

• Bugs

  • Splash damage in the previous version had been reducing damage by dodge chance; this has been changed to simply allow units to dodge splash damage as they would any other attack.  As part of this change, a bug that was causing high-mass units to reduce splash damage was removed.
    
    

• Misc

  • Added method to the Unit class called getPullTimer() and getPushTimer() which return how many frames it has been since a target was last pushed.  If a target has never been pushed/pulled, this timer will reflect the number of frames the target was alive.

• Highlights

  • Added Model System

    • Each ship can choose a Model in addition to a Frame

    • A model provides small specialized benefits and affects your ship's base mass

    • A ship without a model with default to the balanced archetype known as a Cruiser, so this system is optional for beginning players.

  • Added FloatText to display damage, dodge, and healing

  • User Interface now tracks all damage mitigation as Guard, rather than dodge %

    • This value is the total % of damage you have reduced from block + dodging.

• Core Gameplay

  •  Block and Power conditions are are now additive with components, rather than multiplicative

  • "Heavy" Components deal 2.5x damage (up from 2.2)

  • The base ship's speed, Frame.COLLOSSAL_SPEED reduced to 2.5 (from 3.0)
    
    

• Components

  • Weapons

    • Rebalanced core weapon types substantially

      • All weapons are much more damaging overall

      • Autocannons and Lasers have less accuracy

      • Autocannons fire fewer shots but each shot deals more damage

      • Missiles area of effect increased to 120 (from 90)

    • Pullbeam pull effect decreased to 5 (from 7) 

    • Pullbeam mass reduced to 8 (from 12) 

    • Anti Missile System and Rift range decreased to 600 (from 700)

    • Anti Missile System damage halved and slot cost reduced to 1 (from 2)

    • RepairBeam only costs 1 slot (from 2) and has had base healing and mass reduced proportionally

    • Added the HeavyRepairBeam

    • Barrier duration and cooldown increased by about 3x each

      • This makes using barrier a more impactful decision
        
        

  • Upgrades

    • Plating and Shield have been rebalanced, putting more emphasis on Block.

    • Plating has been slightly improved relative to Shield's previous version.

    • Added the Munitions and HeavyMunitions upgrade

      • Provides a bonus to unit power and range

• •  Mods

    • ApolloMod has been added.  Allows repairbeam to heal shields.

    • KratosMod has been added.  Applies a short duration Stop effect on hit.

    • AresMod has been modified to penetrate half of the target's block.

    • CerberusMod damage is now a fixed value, but ignores all of the target's block.

    • PoseidonMod use time / cooldown penalty reduced to 120% (from 200%), but has push effect reduced to 35 (from 40).
      
      

• Bugs

  • Some weapon values in the game did not match the spreadsheet;  these values are now correct.

  • Player Difficulty scaling was incorrectly affecting damage values.  It now only applies to resource gain.

  • HeavyPlating is now correctly size 2 in game

  • Pullbeam efficacy now correctly scales with the target's mass.

  • Many utility weapons now correctly have 100% accuracy, not 0%

  • AntiMissile system animation now displays correctly

  • Missiles now deal half damage if they collide with a target on a miss
    
    

• Organization and Names

  • Starter teams are now called "Foes"

  • Renamed DamageTakenMultiplier to "Block"  This inverted some values that may be used by some players, like Barrier's damage reduction.

  • Renamed DamageMultiplier to "Power"

  • Removed legacy code relating to damage types applying extra damage to certain defenses.  Weapons were not using these values, so this did not affect balance.

• Highlights

  • Introduced Foes (new Starter Teams)

    • Each starter team has a distinct strategy, and is a little more advanced than the old ones.  They are still quite dumb by design.

    • Teams are named in honor of past Astraeus teams

    • You can find the full information on the Foes page.

  • Improved Title Screen

    • Includes a system to showcase screenshots after 20 seconds

  • Improved Gameplay UI

  • Rebalanced speed, acceleation, and mass (see below)

  • Rebalanced starting minerals and resource gain

  • Rebalanced frames
    
    

• Core Gameplay

  • Units move faster by default to compensate for the built-in mass from frames.  In addition, core speed values have been increased to promote better dodge scaling.

    • BASIC_SPEED and BASIC_ACCELERATION are now 100

    • Values.SPEED reduced by 20% from .05 to .04

  • Mass applies twice the penalty to acceleration as it does to speed

  • Missile physics adjusted to compensate for all new changes

  • Frames have changed

    • Light cost is reduced to 3 (from 4)

    • Medium cost is reduced to 4 (from 6)

    • Heavy cost is reduced to 5 (from 8)

    • Heavy health is reduced to 550 (from 650)

    • Assault cost is reduced to 6 (from 10)

    • Assault health is reduced to 700 (from 1000)

  • Starting minerals reduced (from 80 to 60)

  • Resources per node increased (from 10 to 16)
    
    

• Weapons

  • Missile mass decreased (8 --> 6)

  • Collector mass increased (20 --> 30)

  • Drillbeam mass increased (20 --> 30)

  • Repairbeam mass decreased (20 --> 10) 

  • Barrie block bonus decreased (35 --> 30)

  • Barrier provides immunity to push and pull effects

• Mods

  • PoseidonMod has been implemented

  • AresMod now provides 2 bonus shots and 100 max range  (up from +30% shots)

  • AresMod mass increased (0 --> 8)

  • ArtemisMod mass increased (0 --> 6)

  • CerberusMod mass increased (0 --> 4)

  • EosMod mass increased (0 --> 2)

  • Collector mass increased (20 --> 30)

  • Drillbeam mass increased (30 --> 40)
    
    

• Bug Fixes

  • ArtemisMod now correctly has 200 range, not 2000 range.

  • Repairbeam max range is correctly 500, not 0.

  • Secondary weapons now display the correct color to match their type.
    
    

• Names and Organization

  • Units can now be created using class names  (do not need to initialize).

    • Old style has been left in the game for compatibility

  • Gunner style is renamed to Cannon

  • Repairbeam moved to the utility package 

• Bug Fixes

  • Correctly applied the changes to acceleration by frame documented in 1.1.0:

    • Acceleration - Light (50), Medium (38), Heavy (26), Assault (14)

• System

  • The constant Resource.RESOURCE_SPEED determines max speed of moving resources.  It is now is set to 15, rather than ASSAULT_SPEED.  This is a decrease from recent speeds, but similar to what it was in older patches before assault max speed was increased.

  • Base Ships move faster, as the constant FRAME.COLOSSAL_SPEED has increased from 2.4 to  3
    
    

• Weapons 

  • Collector

    • Pull Effect restored to 1.1.0 value (4000-->3000)

  • Pullbeam

    • Increased range substantially (600-->800)

    • Increased pull effect (8 --> 10)

  • Shadowflight Missile

    • Movement penalty increased (LIGHT-->MEDIUM)

    • Range decreased (1000-->850)

    • Accuracy decreased (60-->45)

    • Damage decreased (10 --> 8)

    • Pulse duration increased significantly (520-->780)

• Upgrades

  • Rangefinder

    • Range bonus decreased from 15% to 10%
      
      

• Maps

  • Added free floating minerals to Delphi Temple map

• Bug Fixes

  • Energy Siphon cannot restore shields when the unit is affected by Pulse.
    
    

• System Balance

  •  Frame Rebalance 

    • Max Speed - Light (75-->60), Medium (60 --> 50), Heavy (45-->40), Assault (30-->30)
      
      

• Weapons 

  • Shadowflight Missile

    • Can now be targeted by Anti-Missile System, however they have a 50% chance to evade this attack.

  • Energy Web 

    • The energy web is a utility weapon that can be toggled on or off.  While active, it creates a radius around the unit in which nearby enemy units are slowed and have their shields take damage.  This weapon is size 2 and has a MEDIUM movement penalty. 

  • Flak Battery

    • Movement penalty reduced from HEAVY to MEDIUM

  • Collector

    • Size reduced (2-->1)

    • Pull Effect Increased (3000-->4000)

    • Range Increased (400-->450)

  • Cargo Bay 

    • Structure Bonus increased (100 --> 150)

• Bug Fixes

  • Acceleration was being modified by the wrong value (base speed) rather than base acceleration when affected by a condition

  • Inferno Launcher now always prevents healing

  • Difficulty is now correctly applying to all unit defenses (in addition to damage and resources)
    
    

• System Balance
  
  

  • Damage Types

    • Most weapons no longer provide automatic bonus damage vs. armor types, except:

      • Pulse Cannon deals 50% more damage vs. shields

      • Inferno Launcher deals 50% more damage vs. structure

      • Railgun deal 50% more damage vs. plating

  • Frame Rebalance 

    • Structure - Light (400), Medium (500), Heavy (600), Assault (700)

    • Acceleration - Light (50), Medium (38), Heavy (26), Assault (14)

  • Base Movement Scalars  

    • Global acceleration decreased by 50%

  • Weapon Speed Penalties

    • Light is 20% active / 10% passive         (less penalty)

    • Medium is 40% active / 20% passive (less penalty)

    • Heavy is 80% active / 40% passive (more penalty)

    • Stop is 100% active / 50% passive

  • Accuracy Rebalance

    • Small weapons are about 20% more accurate

    • Medium weapons are about 10% more accurate

  • Explosive Weapons

    • Area of effect increased by about 35% 

    • Damage is decreased by about 10%

    • Missile health halved 
      
      

• Weapons
  
  

  • Flak Battery

    • Slow effect increased (60% --> 70% speed penalty).  Still stacks duration, not effect.

    • Slow duration per hit increased (10-->16 frames)

  • Mass Driver

    • Movement penalty reverted to LIGHT

  • Railgun

    • Movement penalty reverted to HEAVY

    • Damage reduced (80-->65)

    • Deal 50% extra damage to plating

  • Pulse Cannon

    • Deal 50% extra damage to shields

  • Inferno Launcher

    • Deal 50% extra damage to structure (base damage only)
      
      

• Upgrades
  
  

  • Plating

    • Block value increased (6% to 7%)

    • Plating bonus increased (300 --> 350)

    • Plating now applies a small speed penalty (2%)

  • Structure 

    • Repair efficiency bonus decreased (25% to 20%)

  • Shields

    • Shield bonus decreased (300 --> 250)

    • Shield recovery time increased (180-->240 frames)

  • Anti Missile System

    • Cooldown increased (3-->5)

  • Cargo Bay 

    • Also provides a bonus of +100 structure

  • Nanobot Hull

    • Also provides a bonus of +100 structure

    • Reduced regeneration (6-->5)

  • Rangefinder

    • Accuracy bonus reduced (35% --> 25%)

    • Accuracy bonus is now calculated as an additive bonus rather than a scaling multiplier.  

  • Titan Core

    • Accuracy bonus reduced (35% --> 10%)

    • Accuracy bonus is now calculated as an additive bonus rather than a scaling multiplier.  

• Features

  • Added an onBuild() method that is called when a unit is constructed.  You can override this to trigger effects when a unit is created, such as tagging it with an ID value.

• Bugs

  • Aegis no longer double counts its block bonus

  • Repair Beam and Shield Battery can no longer be used on yourself (min range is 10)

  • Removed legacy code that was applying a few boons to your team's defenses, providing a bonus that is not intended to be in the game.  This affected anyone who still was applying the Armorer, Guardian, or Mechanic boons.

  • Base Ships no longer benefit from difficulty bonuses to their damage and defenses

• Balance

  • Frame Base Attribute Rebalance

    • Light Structure (300 --> 400) 

    • Medium Structure (450 --> 550)

    • Heavy Structure (600 --> 650) and Acceleration (30 --> 28)

    • Assault Structure (750 --> 700) and and Acceleration (20 --> 14)

  • Energy Siphon

    • Slow effect decreased (50% --> 30%).  Still stacks effect.

  • Pulse Cannon

    • Use time and cooldown reduced (70/50 --> 50/40)

    • Damage reduced (7-->5)

    • Pulse duration doubled (60 per hit to 120 per hit)

  • Explosive Weapons

    • Health Reduced (50% damage --> 20% damage).  Only applies to defense against AMS.

  • Cataclysm Rocket

    • Range increased (800 --> 1000)

    • Damage decreased (45 --> 40)

    • Area increased (300 --> 360)

  • Flak Battery

    • Slow effect increased (45% --> 60% speed penalty).  Still stacks duration, not effect.

    • Accuracy increased (45 --> 75)

    • Use Time (50-->40) and Cooldown (40-->50) swapped

  • Aegis

    • Cannot be activated when affected by Pulse (from Pulse Cannon or Shadowflight Missiles)

    • Damage reduction reduced to match the documented value (45% --> 35%) 

  • Repair Beam

    • Healing Decreased (8 --> 5)

  • Shield Battery

    • Healing decreased (9 --> 7)

• UI / UX

  • Added a small team portrait to the PlayerBar

  • The relative power bar now reflects Fleet Value + Mineral Reserve, rather than only the fleet value.  This better reflects which team actually has an advantage in a battle.

• Balance

  • • Titan Core

      • This means that base ships no longer have a minimum range.

      • Now also removes the minimum range from weapons

    • Railgun

      • Increased damage (75 -->80)

      • Decreased use time (120 --> 110)

      • Decreased cooldown (45 --> 30)

      • Damage type changed from PIERCE to KINETIC (no longer ignores block value)

      • Move penalty increased (HEAVY --> STOP)

    • Mass Driver 

      • Use time increased slightly (90 --> 100)

      • Movement penalty increased (LIGHT --> MEDIUM)

    • Gravitational Rift 

      • Slot size decreased (3 --> 2)

      • Range increased (600 --> 700)

    • Anti-Missile System

      • Damage increased (1 --> 2)

      • Cooldown increased (2-->3)

      • Range increased (700 --> 800)

    • Explosive Weapons

      • When a target dodges a missile, it keeps moving forward in that direction with a chance to collide.  This drift distance has been decreased to 150% of max range, down from 250% of max range.

      • Missiles will now have a larger "miss radius" from their intended target

      • Splash damage is now reduced by the target's dodge chance in addition to being reduced by the distance from the center of the explosion.

    • Long Range Missile

      • Range decreased (800 --> 750)

    • Antimatter Missile

      • Range decreased (1000--> 900)

    • Shadowflight Missile

      • Pulse effect duration increased (180 --> 520)  

  • Bugs

    • • Autocannon

        • Movement penalty now reflects the documented value of MEDIUM (was LIGHT)

      • Shield

        • Shield regeneration is now properly disabled after taking damage for 180 frames.

  • Maps

    • • Reduced total resources on Rocky Shoals by about 20%

• Feature

  • Teams may now display a "title" string at the start of the match.   Set this in your player class by using the method setTitle(Sting title).

• Balance

  • Damage types have all had their modifiers reduced by 10%

    • Kinetic now deals 10% bonus damage to plating (down from 20%)

    • Energy now deals 10% bonus damage to shields (down from 20%)

    • Explosive no longer deals bonus damage;  area damage is the "special feature" of this weapon.

  • Boons removed from the game. 

    • Boon-related methods remain in the code for legacy team compatibility, but are deprecated.

• Gods

  • Reworked Ares, Poseidon, and Artemis strategies and loadouts.  They are only loosely tied to a damage / armor type, instead focusing on a specific strategy.

    • Ares favors heavy units and straightforward combat.

    • Poseidon tries to abduct units with the pullbeam.

    • Artemis uses hit and run tactics at range.

• Bug Fixes

  • When a setting is enabled, the game can enforce a minimum brightness level for teams.  If a team's primary color is below the min brightness, it is automatically scaled up.

  • Color swapping for teams with similar colors has been reinstated and refined.  It should now be working properly.  The left team will always be the one to swap.

  • Minerals can no longer be duplicated by dropping them and collecting them multiple times within the same frame.

• Balance

  • Pull Beam pull effect reduced by about 20%. 

  • Gravitational Rift pull effect reduced by about 33%

• Bug Fixes

  • Pull Effects are no longer reduced by speed penalties, such as the movement slowdown from firing a weapon.   This makes the weapon much more effective against heavier units and units with multiple heavy weapons or effects like Aegis.

Commentary:

Due to a code refactor, this patch is mandatory before testing.  Your team will not currently compile until the constructor is changed to the setup() method.  See instructions below.

• Features

  • Gravitational Rift added.   Target a unit with a gravitational rift.  All enemy units near the target are pulled toward the center of the rift.  

    • Note: In the future, will allow Point targeting, but that isn't implemented yet

• Balance

  • Mass Driver movement halt duration decreased (30 --> 20).

• Refactoring

  • The Player() constructor no longer takes any parameters.  In addition, teams no longer will need to interact with the constructor.  Instead, they will put all of their code to initialize values in a new method called setup().  Teams should no longer include a constructor in their team code. 

  • This method is called on both soft and hard restarts.  This ensures that all data your team collects and sets throughout a match is fully reset.

• Art

  • Command Relay now uses the unit's primary and secondary colors

• Bug Fixes

  • Settings to include maps from specific subsets (Basic, Tournament, and Trial) are now working.  In addition, a map that is contained in two groups will still only be added to the list once.  This means all maps in the pool have an equal chance of being added. 

  • Added Delphi Temple (Apollo's Map) to the trial map list.  It will now appear randomly and when the map is chosen in Settings.

  • Fixed rounding error with PullBeam scaling against units of different frame sizes.

  • Improved the color switching system to be both a more accurate and sensitive measure.   As a result, teams should switch colors more often.

  • Resolved a bug that caused all weapons to deal double damage after the difficulty bonus scaling.  Thanks to Josh G for the catch!

Commentary:

  The most significant changes to this patch are: (1) Reducing difficulty for students during trials by expanding the benefits of the bonus provided at each tier to include damage and (2) Reducing the effectiveness of hit-and-run attacks with long range heavy weapons..  This patch contains substantial balance changes;  it is recommended that all students download it.

• Trial Difficulty

  • The bonus modifier now applies to damage in addition to health and resource  gain.
    
    

• Weapons

  • Laser Battery accuracy decreased (50 --> 40) and range decreased (650 --> 600)

  • Pulse Cannon range increased (500 --> 600) and damage increased (6 --> 7)

  • Flak Battery slow decreased (50% --> 45%) and duration per hit decreased (15 --> 10)

  • Mass Driver range decreased (500 --> 400), damage increased (25 --> 30), and enemy stop duration increased (1 --> 30).

  • Shadowflight Missile range decreased (1200 --> 1100), accuracy decreased (60 --> 40), and damage decreased (12 --> 10)

  • Command Relay damage bonus reduced (25% --> 15%)

  • Speed Boost effectiveness increased (200% speed --> 250% speed).  Its cooldown and duration have both been doubled.  In addition, the speed boost now provides immunity to pull effects while it is active.

  • Most weapons - especially long range weapons have had their use time increased and cooldown decreased.  Short range weapons tend to require less active aiming time.  

  • Missile weapons have reduced their total use time / cooldown by about 5.  Smaller missiles got a damage boost but have a smaller area of effect. 

  • Laser base damage increased slightly (+1 for small, +3 for large, and +6 for bright)
    
    

Frames and Movement Speed

• • Base Ship movement speed doubled to force endgame sooner

  • Passive Movement Speed Penalties For Weapons have been doubled

    • LIGHT penalty increased (5% -->  10%)

    • MEDIUM penalty increased (10% -->  20%)

    • HEAVY penalty increased (15% -->  30%)

  • Acceleration by frame has been more normalized

    • LIGHT acceleration decreased (70 -->  50)

    • HEAVY acceleration increased (21 --> 30)

    • ASSAULT acceleration increased (10 --> 20)
      
      

• Boons

  • Scout Boon speed and acceleration bonus improved (6% --> 7%)

  • Pilot Boon dodge chance multiplier bonus improved (15% --> 20%)

• Bug Fixes

  • Energy Siphon movement penalty in code updated to LIGHT from MEDIUM to match the documented values.
    
    

• Maps

  • Arena of Glory has more resources that are spread more widely across the map

  • Rocky Shoals has been expanded to more of a wide oval instead of a ring

  • Delphi Temple has smaller asteroids
    
    

• Gods

  • Added Zeus to the roster of gods.

  • Apollo no longer uses skirmishers to flank opponents  (reduces difficulty)

Commentary:

This patch is mostly devoted to the development of Athena and the Command Relay.  Since the C++ tournament is coming up soon, I am keeping balance changes to a minimum. 

• Features

  • Added the Command Relay utility weapon.   When active, applies the Powerful condition to nearby units, increasing their damage.  This effect does not stack.
    
    

• Balance

  • Optimized Algorithms use time and cooldown reduction improved (20% --> 30%)

  • Base Ship 

    • Shield regeneration has been reduced significantly (15 --> 5)

    • Shield has been reduced  (4000 --> 2000)

    • Plating has been reduced (4000 --> 3000)
       

• Bug Fixes

  • Kinetic weapons are now correctly applying applying damage modifiers.  This means the "Gunner" trait is actually being applied to damage now.

  • Explosive weapons are now correctly applying maximum range modifiers toward the missile's duration.  This is an edge case that likely had little effect in most situations.
    
    

• Gods

  • Fixed a major bug with god teams that was causing miners to throw themselves off the edge of the world when a gatherer got too close to them. 

  • Added Athena to the roster of gods.

Commentary:

This patch includes some initial responses and improvements to 0.14.0.  Most notably, the dodge increases made it possible to "dive rush" workers, ignoring the enemy base.  This strategy was almost impossible to counter.  

It was also easy to late game simply rush the base ship and ignore the enemy fleet, destroying it - even while under direct fire the whole time. 

These changes intend to make both forms of rush remain viable, but require a bit more sophistication to pull off. 

• Balance

  • Base Ship has been made significantly stronger

    • Flak Battery has been replaced with the Railgun

    • Brightlance has been replaced with the Laser Battery

    • Use time and cooldown scalar bonus improved (66% --> 33%)

    • Shield increased (2500 --> 4000)

    • Block value increased (0 --> 40%)

  • Collector has been made easier to equip, but slows you down more:

    • Component slot cost reduced (3 --> 2)

    • Movement penalty increased (MEDIUM --> HEAVY)

  • Boons reduced:

    • Scout Boon speed and acceleration bonus reduced (8% --> 6%)

    • Trader Boon speed reduced (4% --> 3%)

    • Pilot Boon dodge chance multiplier (20% --> 15%)

  • Speed Boost cooldown decreased (400 --> 360)

  • Mining Laser movement penalty decreased (MEDIUM --> LIGHT)
    
    

• Bug Fixes

  • Removed extraneous imports from starter teams

  • Made it more difficult to accidentally "cheat" by calling the collect method directly

  • Derelicts are now visible on the minimap
    
    

• Gods

  • Hades has been official added to the roster of gods,

  • His map is called River Styx

• Gameplay

  • Aegis has been in the game secretly for a bit, but has been reworked.  It is a defensive utility weapon.  While active, Aegis provides 35% block but significantly slows the user's movement speed.

  • Asteroid scaling was changed slightly.  Small asteroids are larger (50% --> 75% size) and Large asteroids are smaller (200% --> 150%).
    
    

• Balance

  • Mass Driver stops enemy movement, but no longer stuns / interrupts attacks.

  • Repair Beam max range increased (400 --> 500) and min range removed.

  • Shield Battery max range increased (500 --> 600) and min range removed.
    
    

• Territory

  • Added the map Delphi Temple, the home of Apollo

  • Asteroid spawn size can now be fixed by a map
    
    

• Trials

  • Trial format has been changed:  students may challenge every god they have not won against, but must win two matches in a row.  When you lose, you move onto the next challenge.

  • Apollo has been added to the available gods to challenge during tests and trials.