The most notable gameplay changes are in the resource system. The Combine faction now uses scrap as secondary resource requirement for most units and buildings, except for units such as the Strider and Headcrab cannister launcher.
A new building, the Combine factory, is introduced as collection point for scrap and the Combine loyal citizen unit as scrap collector.
Regular power generators no longer generate the power resource and are now only required for powering nearby buildings. Instead the Combine need to build a separate larger version of the power generator for this purpose. In addition, most of our maps now have groups of four or five smaller scrap piles placed around the control points, making it easier to be shared between players in teams.
Another big change in the resource system is that it's now possible to deplete requisition and scrap during the game duration. With this change we hope to make make turtling a less viable strategy.
The full changelog for this update is:
Gameplay & Balance
- Control Points only generate a limited amount of requisition
- Scrap points can now run out of scrap
- Small scrap marker - Reduced max number of workers from 3 to 2
- Control Point income is no longer reduced based on the number of players in a team game
- Add "Speed" ability to Strider, draining energy in return for higher movement speed
- Combine Elite Energy Ball ability now does friendly damage
- Combine Elite Energy Ball ability now bounces off all buildings
- Reduced RPG range from 1000 to 900.
- Hunter:
- Add jump ability to Hunter. Does no damage, just quickly moves to target location.
- Reduce Hunter attack range to 550 (from 820) and increase flechette damage from 8 to 10.
- Add jump ability to Hunter. Does no damage, just quickly moves to target location.
- Veteran:
- Lowered attack speed from 1.8 to 2.
- Increased damage from 90 to 100.
- Lowered attack speed from 1.8 to 2.
- Flamer:
- Increased burning status effect duration from 1 second to 10 seconds.
- Reduced damage from 5 to 2.
- Reduced range from 370 to 350.
- Increased burning damage from 5 to 10.
- Removed smoke grenade.
- Increased view distance from 475 to 500.
- Increased burning status effect duration from 1 second to 10 seconds.
- Saboteur:
- Changed smoke grenade cost from 5 scrap to 40 energy.
- Reduced smoke grenade cooldown from 9 seconds to 1 second.
- Reduced smoke duration from 15 seconds to 10 seconds.
- Changed initial unit energy from 100 to 40.
- Reduced C4 cost from 20 scrap to 15 scrap.
- Fire attribute:
- Reduced from 20 to 12 vs light.
- Reduced from 12 to 6 vs medium.
- Added 3 constant bonus damage vs buildings.
- Reduced from 20 to 12 vs light.
- Changed smoke grenade cost from 5 scrap to 40 energy.
Maps
- hlw_village, abandoned, metro, woodland, forest, base4, mine - Scrap markers now in groups of 4 and 5.
Visuals
- New Combine energy ball particle effect
CPU Player
- Retweaked CPU player to have better balance for fortifying control points, base building and producing units
- Fixed CPU player not placing any buildings in some cases, in particular the Combine CPU Player
- Fixed bug where CPU Players would not compute the correct resource income in team games (affecting their unit production)
- Rebel CPU Player placing too many unneeded billets at the start of the game
Fixed
- Missing unit navigation on tutorial map
- Units running into walls or buildings in some cases
- Incorrect select/move/attack sounds for female rebel soldier model
- Potential "CUtlRBTree overflow!" crash to desktop error, which could occur on long running instances of Lambda Wars (dedicated servers)
We are also working on multiple other features for next updates, which include achievements, vehicles and save/load support for single player games.