A lot of gameplay changes for this alpha for a few weapon classes, removed mostly unused or non interesting stuff and reducing the turtling viability on the late stages.
Weapon updates
Not all weapons were changed, but those are heavy changes.
Flamer changes
Flamers traded the piercing behaviour in favour of splash damage but without the annoying friendly fire that made them destroy themselves in alpha 9. This change was made for reliability, as the piercing trait added some range and the alignment of target was difficult to see and manage. With splash damage, the rate of fire could be reduced to lessen the stress on the server with dozens of projectiles just to make the targeting easier.
Their damage was also increased for tiers 2 and tiers 3, while their damage to buildings was reduced. This makes them more specialized against units and rather useless against defenses outside bunkers.
Missile changes
Missiles can now fire while moving. This is a huge gameplay change, reducing a lot the micro required to make them effective. They required to manually move and stop to properly fire as the movement AI could not chase units. Which was their initial purpose. Their rate of fire and range were reduced and a minimum range was added to compensate that huge boost.
The objective of theses changes was to keep their instant-killer role with high damage burst, but exposing themselves when the first blow is not enough, without that much hit'n run capabilities.
Radar and laser satellite changes
The counter battery sensor was removed, shortening the radar branch. The research cost was also reduced to make the laser satellite command center available sooner with a reduced cost. But the satellite uplink centre was removed.
This was made in attempt to make the laser satellite available on both sides. And to make mobile sensors or turret useful for more than just a few minutes.
Turtling nerf
Battleplan is mostly about gaining map control. The removal of the uplink centre makes it a little harder to gather information when you are hidden behind a highly fortified small base. Some other changes prevents from locking the game in the late stage.
Oil depletion
Each oil resource now provides power for 25 minutes, which should be largely enough even with a power module (a little less than 17 minutes of power supply). The depletion should not even happen in most games but adds some events when the game is stuck in the late stage.
Static defenses update
Almost every towers had their cost and HP reduced. And walls got a slight HP boost for a reduced cost. This makes it easier to quickly get more firepower at a place, even if most of them can't be massed effectively. Those reductions make them more suitable for cheap firepower assistance that can be destroyed easily when left unattended.
The emplacements were made even more frail, sharing their damage modifier with derricks instead of base buildings. They are meant for long range or anti-air support and a make good targets for surgical strikes.
Other changes
Bye bye Nexus
The Nexus bodies were removed. They added something too situational, with a high cost. Either your opponent had flamers or high tier missile or howitzer and they became useless, either they hadn't and they were mostly invulnerable.
The 3 body classes could be enough to provide counters to some weapon classes.
Bomb increased damage
The damage dealt by bombs were multiplied by 2.5. This huge increase make them more usable and even able to destroy scattered anti-air emplacements with some focus fire.
Increased repair abilities
The repair turrets capabilities were doubled or slightly more, with a reduced price and less HP for the heavy turret. This makes them usable on the field but they are already hard to manage. With the reduction of durability of emplacement, they still make some easy targets.
Added pulse gun 3D model
Those pulse scouts do not look unarmed anymore. The turret is a smaller and simpler version of the unused command turret. It is now clearer to see why they were not always firing, by the time they are rotating their turret toward their target.
New map: Green Tower
An other 2v2 map, small sized. Even if 2v2 maps are larger than 1v1 maps, having twice as much power and units adds action everywhere and quickly. Green Tower has a valuable high ground in the center, from where most routes can be checked. But the map also has side routes to go mostly unseen and reach oil-rich areas in the corners.
Full changelog
Gameplay changes
- Light repair turret capability 5HP/s->10HP/s, cost 215->140
- Heavy repair turret capability 10HP/s->25HP/s, cost 430->280
- Autorepair capability 2HP/s->5HP/s
- Flamers damage modifiers 25/15/15/100->20/8/8/50
- Removed flamer shot penetration
- Flamer splash damage 1 tile radius, 2/3rd of direct damage, no friendly fire
- Flamer firepause 2->3
- Flamer1 damage 10->15 (same dps)
- Flamer2 damage 18->33 (18->22+keeping dps)
- Flamer3 damage 33->72 (33->48+keeping dps)
- Flamer3 HP 110->120
- Missiles can fire while moving
- Missile1 firepause 20->22
- Missile2 firepause 25->26, range 5.25->5
- Missile3 range 6->5.5
- Missiles minimum range 1->2, short range 1->3.25
- Oil resource capacity of 25 minutes of extraction (affected by power module)
- Remove CB sensor
- Remove Satellite Uplink Centre
- Wide Spectrum research cost 600->300
- WS research available after basic sensor research instead of CB sensor
- Laser satellite research cost 600->400
- Laser satellite research available after WS sensor instead of CB sensor
- Fix WS tower sensor range (+2)
- Laser satellite command post cost 1600->1100, HP 600->1100
- Remove Nexus bodies
- Bomb damage 38->95, splash damage 34->86
- Bomb2 damage 50->125, splash damage 45->112
Defenses changes
- Cannon vs SOFT 100%->150%
- MG vs BUNKER 30%->20%
- Rocket moved from Missile modifiers to MG modifiers
- Missile/Howitzer modifiers 40/40/40/30->60/50/50/50
- Emplacements MEDIUM->SOFT
- Bunkers HP x1.5->x2
- Tank trap cost 40->30, MEDIUM->HARD
- Wall cost/HP 120/850->60/950
- Gate cost/HP 120/680->60->750
- Pulse tower SOFT->HARD
- Pulse tower HP 270->180
- MG1 tower HP 320->250
- Flamer1 tower cost/HP 150/330->120/280
- Cannon1 tower HP 420->300
- Missile1 tower cost/HP 210/320->170/250
- Rocket1 emplacement cost/HP 180/280->140->200
- Mortar1 emplacement cost/HP 200/300->180/220
- Howitzer1 emplacement cost/HP 220/240->200/180
- AA MG2 emplacement HP 440->250
- AA Rocket2 emplacement cost/HP 280/400->220/200
- AA Missile2 emplacement cost/HP 310/440->250/200
- MG2 tower cost/HP 200/440->210/310
- Flamer2 tower cost/HP 220/460->180/350
- Cannon2 tower cost/HP 220/560->240/375
- Missile2 tower cost/HP 310/440->255/310
- Rocket2 emplacement cost/HP 280/490->210/250
- Mortar2 emplacement cost/HP 300/410->270/275
- Howitzer2 emplacement cost/HP 330/360->300/225
- AA MG3 emplacement cost/HP 320/600->300/310
- AA Rocket3 emplacement cost/HP 400/500->330/250
- AA Missile3 emplacement cost/HP 420/600->375/250
- MG3 tower cost/HP 320/600->315/390
- Flamer3 tower cost/HP 360/620->270/440
- Cannon3 tower HP 800->470
- Missile3 tower cost/HP 420/600->380/390
- Rocket3 emplacement cost/HP 400/500->315/310
- Mortar3 emplacement cost/HP 460/640->405/340
- Howitzer3 emplacement cost/HP 520/450->450/280
- Radar tower HP 290->250
- Radar2 tower cost/HP 480/400->300/310
- Repair1 cost/HP 200/280->250/200
- Repair2 cost/HP 340/380->375/275
Visual changes
- Changed lookout tower base to concrete base
- Added pulse gun turret
Map changes
- Added Green Tower (2v2)