This update introduces Zeno, the 5th missile for the Missile Silo, which homes onto a target, hits it for a massive dose of slow damage, and then leaves lingering slow in the surrounding area. Another major change is an increase in general unit visibility via a few nerfs for area cloakers. As usual, there are a few months of fixes, features and, contrary to the title, performance improvements.

New Missile

Added Zeno, a homing slow damage missile built in the Missile Silo.

• Has significant range, equal to Quake.
• Homes onto its target.
• Deals 10k slow damage to a single target.
• Interacts with shields similarly to Eos, as 10k slow damage is 3333 damage to a shield.
• Leaves a large area of lingering slow damage for 30 seconds.

Cloak Fields

Many players felt that cloak was a bit too prevalent and that whether to use it lategame wasn't much of a choice. We address this with a few targeted nerfs to area cloak. Most notably, Cornea has a directional cloak field rather than a huge bubble, and larger armies are slower to cloak. The latter is implemented with the new cloak rate mechanic.

• Area cloakers now apply cloak at a set rate, starting with units closest to the centre of the bubble.
• Cloak rate is in terms of mass per second, and only spent on units that are ready to cloak.
• For reference, Bandit has 90 mass, Lance about 300, Dante about 800, and Detriment about 2400.
• Cloak can still be maintained on any number of units.
• Units with personal cloak are unaffected. They don't wait to be cloaked, and don't spend cloak rate that could be used on other units. This includes units that cloak while stationary.

Cornea cloaks a much smaller area, but the area can be moved with Fire Special Weapon (D).

• Jamming range 550 -> 600
• Cloak field range 550 -> 400
• Can shift the centre of its cloak bubble up to 200 elmos away
• Has a cloak rate of 1200 mass/s

Iris has a small range reduction and cloaks at a slower rate than Cornea.

• Cloak field range 400 -> 360
• Jamming range 400 -> 360
• Has a cloak rate of 800 mass/s

Commander Area Cloak loses a similar amount of cloak range and has the same cloak rate.

• Cloak field range 350 -> 320
• Jamming range (with cloak field module) 350 -> 320
• Has a cloak rate of 800 mass/s

Conjurer is the most efficient cloaker in terms of cloak rate per cost.

• Has a cloak rate of 600 mass/s

Balance

Puppy now leaves wrecks and debris when killed, but not when it hits a target. Previously it left nothing.

Imp now only barely "makes cost" against a lone Scorcher.

• Cost 120 -> 125

Snitch costs a bit more to spam.

• Cost 160 -> 170

Cyclops slowbeam had a bug that made it do 3x the intended damage to shields.

• Slowbeam damage to shields 2000 -> 666

Hercules can reach the ground and lift everything.

• Fixed a weapon bug that caused its laser to not reach ground units while cruising.
• Can now transport Shogun and Reef.

Advanced Radar is a bit too good after its cost reduction from 500.

• Cost 400 -> 450

Maps and Campaign

• Added Zeno to planet Nataa (the Missile Silo mission).
• Tweaked planet Mstaras (the Gunship Factory mission) to be a bit easier on difficulties below Brutal.
• Added startboxes for Angel Crossing, Calamity v1.1 and Supreme Crossing V2.
• The "Sun, Fog & Water" map tweaking tool now loads its defaults from map settings.
• Added shadow density to "Sun, Fog & Water" map tweaking tool.
• Added compatibility for more metal layout standards.
• Removed map fog by default. This is the type that was visible when zoomed out.
• Tweaked the lighting and water settings on a few maps.

Graphics and Interface

• Reordered battles in the multiplayer lobby to put empty autohosts below running games.
• Build spacing UI has more options, found under "Settings/Interface/Building Placement".
• Added a contrast adaptive sharpening shader. It can be enabled under Settings/Graphics/Effects with "Sharpening".
• Added notable death explosion to ingame unit help menu (accessed via space+click).
• Added better support for flipping the minimap, which is useful when used with a flipped camera.
• Added a widget that displays map info like a label on a painting. Disabled by default.
• Fiddled with the way line of sight adds to radar. This unlocks more ways to customise radar coverage.
• Tweaked war and peace detection to spend a bit more time playing peace music.
• Fixed slight visual misalignment when Missile Silo launches missiles.

Fixes

• Improved performance of game mechanics that handle orders.
• Fixed significant framerate drop (with certain settings) caused by many multi-weapon striders firing at once.
• Fixed kicking a spectator sometimes causing a player to resign.
• Fixed X-Ray shader issues on some hardware.
• Fixed a rare bug with jumpjet behaviour.
• Fixed a rare crash in the tab playerlist.
• Fixed missing text on shield charge bars.
• Blitz description no longer mentions its old EMP death explosion.

This patch has an engine update, some superweapon tweaks, and extra gridding. Strider Hub now requires 50 grid energy. This is targeted at rushes in big team games, as every other use of Strider Hub should not have trouble finding 50 energy. The engine update changes how graphics states are handled over multiple games, which should improve load times and performance.

Bertha now requires a grid connection and is a bit better at knocking down walls. Grid for Bertha has been frequently requested for a long time, probably for thematic reasons, as finding 50 energy seems easy for most Berthas. Zenith had a large buff to knocking down walls just over a year ago, which turned out to be too much, so is slightly worse at it. Starlight aims slightly slower to give defenders a little more time.

Balance

Strider Hub requires grid to place striders and to spend resources.

• Requires 50 grid energy to function.

Big Bertha requires grid and is better at knocking down walls.

• Requires 50 grid energy to function.
• Smooth radius 96 -> 120
• Smooth effect increased 40% -> 50% (matches Zenith)
• Structure smoothing multiplier 0% -> 25%

Zenith is worse at knocking down walls.

• Smooth radius 140 -> 120
• Structure smoothing multiplier 100% -> 50%

Starlight has reduced aim speed to enable a bit more counterplay, and because slow means epic.

• Pitch rate 1.2 -> 0.75 deg/s (37.5% nerf)
• Yaw rate 3.5 -> 2.5 deg/s (28.5% nerf)

High Density Plating was erroneously applying its improved form to all chassis.

• Health for Strike, Recon, Engineer 2000 -> 1600

Features

• Added the lobby option 'Equalize team commanders' under 'Start' to balance uneven custom games.
• Improved performance and load times.
• Added GameID to game rules params (widgets can read it).

Fixes

• Fixed wrecks dropped by jumping units snapping to the ground.
• Fixed commander experience not being updated correctly when upgrading.
• Fixed water visuals on some maps (water was a bit too opaque).
• Energy content no longer effects reclaim highlight colour (for mixed resource map features).
• Ctrl-Click auto morph for structures is now disabled by Shift.
• Fixed blast radius indicator for EMP blasts (Imp).
• Improved the sun on Delta Siege Dry Deluxe V3.

Commanders are more diverse and generally a bit cheaper to morph. On top of this, each chassis has more effective versions of modules that align with the speciality of the chassis. Weapon and upgrade costs have been reworked at level 4 to make more sense.

Modules were tweaked to buff most types of commander, with nerfs for builds that stack range and speed, as those were a bit too strong. Repeat modules are now limited to 5 rather than 8, and have many have chassis-specific buffs. Range and speed modules are more expensive, eating into the cheaper morph cost at level 4, while other modules have the same or greater effectiveness.

Campaign commanders can still stack 8 repeat modules, and gain the benefit of most speciality buffs, because that just seems like fun. There are some non-commander changes too, such as nerfs for Cloakbots, buffs for Spider, and greater restrictions on gunships leaving the map.

Commanders

Weapon and upgrade costs were shifted around to make a bit more sense. Level 4 is up to 200 metal cheaper than before.

• A "Beam Laser" option is now available at level 2, replacing "No Weapon"
• All weapons at level 2 are now free (cost 25 -> 0)
• Level 4 base cost 650 -> 150 (now base cost always increases by 50 per level)
• Picking "No Weapon" at level 4 actually results in no weapon
• Basic weapons at level 4 cost 25 -> 350
• Advanced weapons at level cost 100 -> 400

Generic modules now have a limit of 5, rather than 8. Commanders will generally be a bit more powerful earlier as many modules were buffed in some way, however, a few were nerfed. The module limit in the campaign is still 8.

Module Changes

Speed penalties for modules are now a percentage of speed - after flat bonuses - rather than a flat penalty. Overall this increases the speed penalties for commanders that stack High Powered Servos, while often buffing other builds.

Damage Booster is more effective and usually costs less speed.

• Damage boost 10% -> 15%
• Speed penalty flat 1 -> 2% of total speed

High Density Plating costs much less speed.

• Speed penalty flat 3 -> 2% of total speed

High Power Servos is denser but slightly less efficient.

• Cost 150 -> 200
• Speed boost 3 -> 3.5

CarRepairer's Nanolathe is also slightly less efficient, but now it is nice and round.

• Cost 150 -> 200
• Build power boost 4 -> 5

Adv. Targeting System costs more metal and speed.

• Cost 150 -> 200
• Speed penalty flat 1 -> 3% of total speed

Personal Cloak usually costs less speed.

• Speed penalty flat 8 -> 12% of total speed

Chassis Changes

Some modules are more effective on appropriate chassis. The specialisation bonuses listed below are relative to the newly tweaked modules.

Guardian gains 25% more health from modules.

• Ablative Armour health 600 -> 750
• High Density Plating health 1600 -> 2000

Strike gains more regeneration from modules but loses the buff by level 6.

• Autorepair regeneration boost 10 -> 12
• Rescaled innate regeneration 5/5/10/16/25/35 -> 5/8/12/16/20/25

Engineer gains more buildpower from modules, turning the module tweak into a buff.

• CarRepairer's Nanolathe buildpower boost 5 -> 6

Recon gains more speed and can lower its jump cooldown, at the cost of poor buildpower.

• High Power Servos speed boost 3.5 -> 4
• High Power Servos reduces jump cooldown by 1 second
• CarRepairer's Nanolathe buildpower boost 5 -> 4

Campaign Chassis is generally more powerful, as that seems fun.

• Gains all the module specialisation bonuses listed above, except for buildpower.
• Gains 5 buildpower from CarRepairer's Nanolathe, to keep its numbers round,
• Now has Strike-level innate regen (up from 5 at all levels)
• Removed Strike innate jamming, as it was added accidentally.

Weapon Changes

A few less popular weapons have been buffed. A bug that caused Shotgun, Flamer and Heatray to only benefit from every second range module has been fixed.

Shotgun regains the range it lost for technical reasons, and fires faster.

• Range 264 -> 285
• Reload 2s -> 1.8s

Cluster Bomb has more damage in the form of an extra projectile, and more spread.

• Projectiles 8 -> 9
• Spray angle increased by 20%

Concussion Shell deals a bit more damage.

• Damage 750 -> 850

Balance

Ronin is slower when in battle and a little easier to kill.

• Health 400 -> 380
• Moves at 80% while reloading

Reaver cares more about incidental health loss.

• Regeneration rate 20 -> 15 health/second

Flea is more dangerous.

• Damage increased by 14.3%

Venom now has an Avoid Bad Targets toggle.

Fixes

• Aircraft that go too far off the edge of the map are now "gently" pushed back in.
• Shotgun, Flamer and Heatray now gain range correctly.
• Fixed Recon's shaky aiming while walking.
• Players and AIs that fail to place a start position are now cycled through defaults, rather than selecting the first.
• Fixed a few outdated module tooltips on the campaign UI.
• Renamed "Save / Load" in Campaign to "Profile".
• Improved the AI's commander morph choices.
• Speed is now displayed with a decimal place in Space+Click menu, as many units have increments of 0.5.

We have been testing an engine update since Wednesday, and this time it seems stable enough to adopt. The update corresponds to about ten months of work and mostly involves the graphics backend. As a result, performance has improved for many people and some AMD graphics issues have been fixed, although in testing we found the current beta graphics drivers to be unreliable. Be sure to ask on the forums or Discord if you encounter issues. The engine also has a few new features, with the biggest being the ability to shrink the space factories try to clear of allied units. The update also has some new music tracks from Superintendent and the commander morph rate nerf has been reduced.

Balance

Commander upgrade has its recent nerfs reduced, particularly at high levels.

• Morph rate 5/5/7.5/7.5/10/10/10... -> 5/7.5/10/12.5/15/15/15... per level

Features

• Performance should be improved for many people.
• Allied units can loiter much closer to factories without being told to go away.
• The auto assist toggle sends constructors directly sideways, to save time.
• Added more tracks by Superintendent.
• Show Selection Rank by default.
• Improve RoI tracker and add a hotkey to toggled it.