Ch-ch-ch-ch-Changes! This week’s update increases the pace of the game, reduces the size of the map and… a lot of other things. Keep on reading!
Improved Gameplay
With this update, we’ve modified several core gameplay features. Our aim is to provide a faster and more engaging experience without sacrificing the tactical depth we all love and enjoy. To reach this goal, we’ve tried to reduce the amount of “dead” turns in a match and to get rid of some rules that were good on papers, but never managed to deliver satisfying strategic choices during the actual gameplay.
Here is a quick overview of the changes:
- Map: Size has been considerably reduced
- Power Cores: They are now ground objects.
- Respawn: Champions can now be respawned only on Teleport Beacons (the former Deploy Beacons). Which power core takes damage is no longer tied to distance but to a fixed order.
- Main Cannon: It now fires all shots immediately after being capped, then it goes dormant for 3 turns.
- UI: During the resolution phase, characters now declare their action with an in-game icon
Wastelands 2.0
PLEASE NOTE: On the live servers you will see a placeholder version of the new map, with temporary graphics. While we did enjoy the new gameplay feeling it provides, we want to hear feedback from the community before committing to a full graphic rework.
Our game map has been nearly untouched for several months and was in dire need of a nice rehaul. By analysing the movement patterns done by players across hundreds of matches, we noticed there were several completely useless tiles and a least a couple of nearly-impossible to reach zones. Also, it could take a painfully long amount of turns to reposition after a bad engage. For these reason, we’ve reduced the size of the map and made all corners more easily accessible.
Also, a reduced map size will allow us to move the camera a bit closer to the battlefield, resulting in improved clarity.
Power Cores and Respawn
Both Power Cores and Respawn rules have been slightly reworked. This was done not only to address gameplay issues in the current map, but to give us more flexibility while designing new ones. (Yes, another map is already in development)
First of all, Power Cores are no longer towers, but ground elements. This is mostly a graphic change, since those three pillars were making the base zones look very crowded and confusing.
Speaking of actual gameplay, we’ve removed the link between a respawn location and a specific power core. Now, when you respawn, regardless of the position, your power cores will take damage in a fixed order (the same the cannon follows). While on paper it sounded nice to have the ability to choose which power core to damage, in actual gameplay it always translated in an optimal choice over others that were obviously less efficient. Those kind of choices do not really add any depth to the gameplay and are, most of the times, an unnecessary complication.
Also, this used to unnecessarily increase matches duration, especially when there was a stalemate on the central objective. With today’s changes, after 3 kills the first gate will always fall, thus leading to a more rapid shift in the flow of battle and opening up new viables “guerrilla” strategies.
For those concerned this will reduce the importance of capturing the Main Cannon, we believe this won’t be the case. First of all, capturing the cannon is always the most efficient way to damage the enemy power cores and ignoring it will result in a quick demise. In addition, the mere existence of the Main Cannon forces you to leave your base and to avoid turtling strategies.
Along with this changes, we’ve modified the tiles where it is possible to actually respawn a champion and unified them with the Deploy Beacons, under the new name of Teleport Beacons.
In other words, is now possible to respawn at a much advanced location than before. This will make comebacks and last-minute contests over the Main Cannon much more easier and, most importantly, avoid those “dead” positioning turns we spoke of earlier on.
Also, the possibility to respawn champions directly into the fight will dramatically increase the gameplay rhythm.
Of course, those Teleport Beacons will ALWAYS be available, regardless of how many power cores have been destroyed. Naturally, this does not apply if all power cores are down.
To avoid trivializing champion’s deaths, we’ve increased the respawn timer to 3 turns.
Along with DRAMATICALLY increasing the pace of the game, this change allows us much more freedom when designing new maps.
Main Cannon
The Main Cannon received a minor rework. Now it fires all its shots as soon as it is captured (after the usual 3 turns) and then goes dormant for 3 more turns. Our aim, besides speeding up the game and avoiding the situation where the attacking player has no other valid option than wait for something to happen, is to give a general behaviour to all our objectives, a much needed feature considering we’re going to add new mechanics in the upcoming maps. We want all this different objectives on different maps to DO different things, but to work in the same basic way: you cap them for X turn, they activate and do their special mechanic, then they go off for some more turns.
Clarity
Our quest for clarity if, of course, not over. We’ve added nice in-game icons. Also, we’ve redesigned champions’ health bars and numbers.
Balance
Naima
- Overwatch: Range and width reduced to a 3x6 rectangle.
- Pin Down: Range reduced to 6, down from 7
Shiryo
- Movement: Base movement reduced to 3-5, down from 3-6
- Yurei’s Vengeance: Range reduced to 4, down from 7. Additionally, the range is no longer increased by the number of spirits consumed.
Infestus
- Movement: Reduced to 3-5, down from 4-6
- Blight Tendrils: Range reduced to 5, down from 6
Gunther
- HP: Reduced to 11, down from 13
- Movement: Reduced to 3-4, down from 3-5
- Stone Warden: Damage reduced to 1, down from 2
- Gravitation Beam: Range reduced to 4, down from 5
Jaril
- Spore Cloud: Range reduced to 5, down from 6
Angor
- HP: Reduced to 7, down from 9
- Movement: Reduced to 4-6, down from 5-8
Archaios
- HP: Reduced to 4, down from 5
- Movement: Reduced to 4-6, down from 4-8
- Energy Link: It now heals when applied
- Overload: Damage increased to 2-4, up from 1-3. Using Overload will break the current Energy Link.
- Protocol Keres: Using Protocol Keres will break the current Energy Link
