Greetings Commanders
This patch replaces Basic Games with single-player scenarios, intended to teach the game to beginners and advanced tactics to more experienced players. The requirement for 10 Basic wins before playing full games is now removed. Some unit stats tuning is also included, along with some fixes and tweaks.
Since launch, players have been almost solely playing Basic Games. This was NOT the intended outcome. Basic Games were meant to act as a more fun form of tutorial, played by beginners to get a grip on the game before playing Full Games - the "real game".
What happened instead was that the population was too low, causing players who unlocked Full Games to be unable to find opponents online. So, of course, they reverted to Basic Games, where at least they could find someone to play against. The result: almost nobody played full games.
So, Basic Games are out. Everyone can play Full games (now renamed to Random Battles) from the start, and all online matchmaking is for this game mode.
Beginners can play Practice Battles, the Basics pack, to learn how to play in a "learn-by-doing" manner but in a safer environment than against highly skilled human opponents.
More Scenario packs are currently in development and will soon be available as paid DLC. They will offer higher-difficulty challenges for more advanced players, to improve their understanding of game mechanics and complex tactics.
Unit stats changes:
A: now immune to suppression. A's are meant to be slow and unstoppable, so halving their speed under fire doesn't feel right.
H: reduced durability from 375 to 340 and range from 3500 to 3200. H's are a bit too powerful at the moment, this should make them slightly less overwhelming while preserving the "heavy artillery" felling.
I: entrench time increased from 10s to 20s. Since I's can entrench while in combat, moving them feels inconsequential if the entrench time is too low.
S: reduced durability from 600 to 400 and range from 3500 to 2600. Since the addition of the suppression mechanic, S have become simply too good at kiting. This change hopefully preserves their intended role, while making them more vulnerable if they get caught.
This patch adds a number of changes, hopefully will allow more players to enjoy the game as it was meant to be played. Unit stats are by no means final, but should be a step in the right direction: diverse, fun and effective unit types. Looking forward to hearing your thoughts on the game.
Good luck on the battlefield
The dev