We've been teasing it for a long time, and finally we're releasing the Devastator Tank. It makes a Goliath look small, and has 6 massive barrels to rain destruction down on it's enemies. Of course, it is extremely expensive and time consuming to build, so if you do manage to create one be careful with it! Huge XP boost for whoever takes it out. (like all core gameplay units, Devastator is free for AirMech Prime owners)
We've added more Ultimate Abilities (available at level 7 ingame) to AirMechs that were missing them, see below for more details. We're getting closer to having a nice set of things that make each AirMech feel unique, though more balancing and testing is always needed.
Brand new this patch is the Event Scroll, which is a feed of activity by players. Currently it's just a technical test, but will be expanded to include more events, and to prefer showing you things from your Friends list (if you have Friends). Definitely leave us your feedback on the forums with ideas for how to expand this concept. If you go to the Social tab, there's now room for both the Events and Global Chat.
Lots of balance changes this patch, but they are mostly tweaks to address things which really do make some units too good. Nothing drastic or controversial, much of this comes from a well thought out thread posted by Valinor and the resulting conversations.
Existing players won't notice so much, but we've reworked quite a lot of the Challenges to make them better at teaching new players the basics. You'll get prompts from Pilots helping you out if you haven't completed them before. It would be good to ask some friends to play and see what they think coming in as new players.
We're continuing to move things around behind the scenes to bring bits of Matchmaking 3.0 over to the live build, which has had a few issues but they have been fixed mostly on the server side of things. The remaining small issue involved being able to exit and re-enter the queue too fast, and bad things happening. This patch has some additional logic to fix that. We still have a complete overhaul of the Matchmaking UI ahead of us, this is just the first step towards that.
Besides everything listed below, there's even more bugfixes, tweaks, and improvements we've been working on. There's almost always a dev around in chat, feel free to stop by and say hi!
Updates:
- Matchmaking 3.0 queue system activated
- New Unit: Devastator
- ultra heavy tank that hits for massive damage (definitely over 9000)
- New Saucer Ultimate Ability
- Teleport units from the build queue to your cargo hold!
- New Neo Ultimate Ability
- Confuse nearby missiles into selecting new targets!
- New Angel Ultimate Ability
- Hyper Rail greatly increases Sniper Rifle damage (work in progress, visuals/sound not final)
- Whole bunch of new Parts, which will be dropping and craftable with the Nanoforge
- Rework of Challenge maps to make them better for new players learning the game
- New art for some pilots
- Larger and brighter friend inspect dialog, possibly customizable in the future
- Ability Bar Icons now require deliberate click to activate (mouse-up only won't trigger them)
- Stop mouse from forcing position on game launch
- Event Feed first pass added to game (view in Social tab more easily)
- Spiral survival map waves have been adjusted
- New Promo for entering email address to make completing Uplink Quest easier
- tweaks to display in Shop prices
- update Tutorial character to reflect chosen pilot from new user start
- update Saucer's teleport: only allow teleporting units that don't exceed Saucer's carry capacity
- move Event Scroll offscreen when there's no room for it
- Ashe and Beppo have updated art
- Make Uplink Quest link to ingame email entry
New Parts:
- Helix Turbine Engine superior engine for rotatry craft
- Advanced Engine - fly faster, burn more fuel
- Advanced Pistol Ammo - Angel primary weapon only
- Bipod - Angel sniper rifle only
- Specialized Scope - Angel sniper rifle only
- Specialized Shield - improved energy shield
- Heavy Chest Armor - additional protective layers
- Chest Armor - better balance between protection and movement
- Heavy Helmet - no headshots here
- Helmet Armor - upgrade from default armor
- Heavy Knee Armor - protects those weak spots
- Knee Armor - covers the knee joint
- Servos - quicker transform and running
- Efficiency Chip - increase flight efficiency at increased cost
- Advanced Minigun - exlusive to Warthog, adds Style!
Bug Fixes:
- fix to prevent re-enter Matchmaking queue too fast
- fix crash with Saucer when Blinking and Teleporting
- fix collision issues on Twin Peaks
- fix collision issue on Sonya
- fix Challenge 10 issues
- make shop filter background block clicks
- bug fix for a desync issue
- fix part stat rebalancing to display correctly
- Fixed a rare crash when sending too many units to attack
- AI bugfixes
Balance Changes:
- Angel Pistol (primary) Damage increased 50%
- Angel Pistol (primary) Damage starts to falloff at 40% of max range
- Bomber Does 25% less damage to Outposts
- Osprey Does 18% more damage to Outposts
- Only Tech 1 is needed to build any of the Super units now
- Tech Pod build time increased to 10 seconds from 8
- Jumper Cost increased to 1100 from 900
- Jumper HP reduced to 210 from 250
- Jumper DPS decreased to 60 from 63
- Flamer Cost increased to 990 from 600
- Flamer HP decreased to 300 from 350
- Sergeant Cost increased to 1400 from 1200
- Sergeant DPS decreased to 60 from 65
- Sergeant Weapon Penetration reduced to 30 from 35
- Roller Cost increased to 9800 from 8000
- Roller Weapon Penetration reduced to 20 from 45
- Grinder Cost increased to 12000 from 11000
- Grinder Weapon Penetration increased to 90 from 85
- Grinder DPS decreased to 250 from 300
- Goliath HP decreased to 300 from 350
- Seeker Range decreased to 24 from 28
- Seeker Armor decreased to 70 from 85
- Seeker Missile lifetime decreased to 3.2 from 3.5
- T99 Missile lifetime decreased to 3.2 from 3.5
- Flakker DPS increased to 180 from 150