Escalation 2.71 update

**Released**

Balance

Emergency Turret

The Emergency turret was under performing, especially when compared to the Serpentine Turret

• Damage increased from 10 to 14

Fury

Both air fighters are having their suitability reduced to improve the potency of all ground based anti-air.  

• Health reduced from 410 to 350

Dominator

The Dominator and Punisher had a tiny amount of health relative to their shields. We are replacing some shields for health as it was inconsistent with other Substrate units and made them especially vulnerable to EMP Pulse. 

• Total health/shields reduced from 390 to 350
• 100 shields replaced with health

Hades

The Hades was still lacklustre and due to the damage increase of basic air defences, the Hades is getting a small buff.

• Damage increased from 50 to 60

Punisher

Most of the Punisher's delay comes from it's movement, flying around to re-strafe its target. However, if the Punisher continually targets units in front of it, such as extractors across multiple resource regions, the Punisher's damage output is enormous. We are increasing the Punisher's weapon cool down so it's less potent for sniping multiple Extractors.

• Weapon cooldown increased from 2.1 to 3.1
• 200 shields replaced with health

Air Marauder

• Metal cost increased from 450 to 500

Air Harbinger

The chance to miss has been removed from most weapons due to unnecessary RNG and the visual inconsistency it causes. The Harbinger is losing its chance to miss.

• Accuracy increased from 90 to 100
• Damage reduced from 250 to 225

Substrate Nexus

The secondary weapon on the Substrate Nexus looked strange as the projectile was incredibly slow. Its projectile speed is increasing to look more potent.

• Secondary weapon projectile speed increased from 125 to 500
• Secondary weapon damage decreased from 5 to 4

Assembly

in 2.5, we reduced the health of the Assembly to make it weaker than the PHC Counterparts to compensate for its versatility. Since it can no longer produce air units, we are restoring some of that health. This change was intended for the 2.65 update which it was accidentally left out of.

• Increased Health of Assembly from 1200 to 1600 

Pulverizer

The Pulverizer had too much range for a tier 1 defense, making it difficult to counter with artillery cruisers.

• Range reduced from 1000 to 900

EMP Pulse

EMP Pulse was too effective, able to completely turn Cruiser fights, especially when combined with Plasma Storm. We are increasing the cost of EMP Pulse so it's more of an investment from the PHC player.

• Quanta cost increased from 150 to 200

Hyperion

The Hyperion was over performing as it's 20% armor-piercing gave it too strong performance against other Dreadnoughts. We are removing its armor-piercing to better distinguish it from Dreadnought killers.

• Armor-piercing removed from main weapon
  
  

Maps

Battleline & Battleline Frenzy

• Increase Turinium Requirements from 500 to 1500

Barcia

• Moved spawning locations so no Nexus spawn within range of nearby creeps

Eltanin

• Improved detail on top and bottom of the map

Campaign & Scenarios

• Tormentor and Atlas are now available on all Campaign and Scenarios missions.

Escalation Leo

Partially due to the Constable buff, we are making Leo easier as it was too difficult compared to most other campaign missions. 

• Increased starting resources on low difficulties
• Improved starting defenses on low difficulties
• lowed additional AI upgrades on higher difficulties

Escalation Betelgeuse

Betelgeuse was too easy on high difficulties, but required lots of sitting around waiting. We are making the mission more exciting by reducing the enemy upgrades but adding to the enemy waves sent out at the player making defense more challenging.

• Lowered the amount of enemy upgrades on high difficulties
• Decreased delay before enemy waves are sent to the player on high difficulties
• Added additional Constables in the main enemy base
• Increased the amount of units sent in the enemy waves when playing on high difficulties

Overlord Scenario

Overlord and King of the Hill were the only two scenarios that didn't get an update in 2017. Overlord suffered from too many narrow pathways and insufficient Radioactives Deposits, limiting the player's options. Despite this, the mission was far too easy on high difficulties.

• Widened the pathways around the map.
• Added additional Radioactives deposits.
• Enemy AI now gets free waves of units on high difficulties
• Friendly AI is weaker on high difficulties

King of the Hill Scenario

King of the Hill was old and outdated, lacking units from Escalation. The difficulty settings for Kill of the Hill was unnecessary as it was an endless wave survival mission, the challenge is seeing how long you can hold out for. We are removing the difficulty setting so that it is standardized, making it easier to compare scores and struggle to improve your survival time. The map is getting some quality of life changes, more unit variety and additional late game juggernaut waves are being added to prevent experienced players from holding out indefinitely with Juggernauts. 

• Removed difficulty options, only playable difficulty is now Normal
• Slightly delayed first ground wave to give more plays time to build up
• Revealed the player’s nearby surroundings.
• Added a “Hold out as long as possible” objective
• Widened the thickness of the high ground and attack path surrounding the base
• Blocked off the northern entrance into the player's base. The player now only has to defend south.
• Placed a ramp on the east and west high ground
• Added Masochist, Athena, Hera and Eradicator into enemy waves
• Removed early Pan scout wave
• Replaced every second Overmind wave with a Retributor wave that comes from the west.
• lowed the amount of Furies in the early fury wave and included a Hades squadron and Punisher
• Removed Drone Swarms sent at the player
• Added Juggernaut waves starting at 32 minutes
  
• Added Experimental Eye of Darkness waves starting at 45 minutes.

Audio Volume Adjustments

There were many issues with the volume of weapon effects, some weapons were too loud or quiet, while many secondary weapons on Dreadnoughts were just as loud as the primary weapon. We are rebalancing many of the weapon effects to ensure volume levels are more consistent and better reflect the potency of the weapon type. 

• Increased volume of Prometheus main weapons
• Decrease volume of Prometheus secondary weapons
• Increase volume of Savager primary weapons
• Decreased volume of Retributor secondary weapon
• Decreased volume of PHC & SS Mobile Nullifier weapon
• Decreased volume of Charon weapon
• Decreased volume of Rampager Secondary weapon
• Increase volume of Eradicator primary weapon
• Decreased volume of Eradicator secondary weapon
• Increased volume of Punisher weapon
• Increased volume of Mauler Primary weapon
• Increased Volume of Rampager primary weapon
• Decrease volume of Zeus secondary weapon
• Increased volume of Hera weapon
• Increased volume of Air Harbinger
• Decreased volume of Mauler secondary weapon
• Decreased volume of Destructor secondary weapon
• Lowed Volume of Masochist
• Increased volume of Nemesis primary weapon

Bug Fixes

• Tormentor and Atlas now have Capture Beam visual effect
• Fixed an issue on Influx where Nexus destroyed would cause Relay destroyed text to play
• Fixed an issue where Nihilon wasn’t referenced properly in the Genesis Campaign if the Oblivious DLC was off
• Fixed an issue on Genesis Griffinclaw where the bonus objective was stuck and not able to be completed.
• Fixed typo in Ascension
• The Experimental Eye of Darkness destroying the player Nexus now properly causes a loss on Ascension
• Atlas is now build able on Against All Odds Scenario
  
• Fixed missing Metal Deposits on Galatea
• Fixed Archer and Athena targeting issue
• Weapons Damage Quantum Upgrade now specifies the damage bonus also applies to Orbital Abilities
• Fixed visual weapon alignment of Air Rampager
• Increased size of the string table to support additional german language tags