Escalation 2.81 Update

**Released**

 

The 2.81 update addresses balance consequences of the recent size rework in the 2.8 update. The larger models clump less which meant area of effect weaponry was weaker, so the following changes are mainly buffing some of the under performing splash. The size rework also made frigates more powerful relative to cruisers due to their ability to densely pack firepower into a small area and have less time-to-engage.

 

Cruiser Speed

2.8's size changes made Cruisers feel slower, but it also made them weaker because as they were clumping less, taking longer for an army of cruisers to get in position and start firing at the enemy. Increasing the speed makes cruisers and army formations more responsive.

  • Increased movement speed of all cruisers by 50% (does not include Engineers)
  • Increased acceleration of cruisers by varying amounts depending on their previous values.

 

Reaper

Pure reaper spam became a very overpowered strategy. For comparison, mass Archers overkill and don't scale as effectively.

  • Damage reduced from 14 to 12

 

Tormentor 

  • AOE increased from 40 to 60

 

Zeus

  • Cooldown reduced from 5 to 3 seconds

 

Avenger

The Avenger is Substrate's primary anti-frigate cruiser, and will be tougher to compensate.

  • Health increased from 180 to 280
  • Shields increased from 500 to 550

 

Cronus

  • AOE increased from 60 to 100

 

Hades

The recent Hades rework left it very weak.

  • Metal cost reduced from 220 to 180
  • Radioactives cost reduced from 150 to 130
  • Build time reduced from 40 to 35
  • Logistics reduced from 7 to 6
  • Cooldown reduced from 9 to 6

 

Basic Tutorial

  • Removed Carving Turret from orbital introduction as it no longer targets frigates and cruisers.
  • Fixed some typos and text errors.
  • Added some extra lines of text to give more information about controls 

 

Campaign

 

Noctus

  • Map Turinium requirements increased from 500 to 1500

 

Caletheon

  • Minor tweaks to wave spawns and starting upgrades to compensate for faster Cruisers

 

Battleline

  • Minor tweaks to wave spawns to compensate for faster Cruisers

 

Bug Fixes

  • Fixed a bug where drones would not follow the host unit if the drones spawned in combat. (Most noticeable with Hyperion Assault Drones)
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