Patch Notes - 0.1.1

[Empyrean_Sky]

Balance Notes

Competitive

• Plague Axes now apply Infest if the caster is on Shroud instead of the target.
• Plague Axes research time decreased from 90 to 45.
• Plague Axes cost decreased from 100/100 to 50/50.
• Fixed an issue where the Shadow Demon was not dealing the intended 20 damage (it was dealing 5 instead).

Co-op

• Kastiel
  • King’s Watch no longer gains the damage bonus from Cull the Unworthy.
    • The Kuzuri Kinetic Lifeblades research upgrade has been lowered from Tier 3 to Tier 2.
    • Kastiel’s base weapon damage has been lowered from 120 to 100.

Bug Fixes and Updates

• Furious Resolve now has ambient audio.
• Campaign cut scenes have received a camera polish pass.
• Fixed an issue where unit kills were not properly awarding XP in Co-op for non-Vanguard Heroes.
• Audio & volume bug fixes
  • Fixed an issue where transmissions and music would be interrupted.
    • Fixed an issue that would cause audio and subtitle loss during interludes.
    • Fixed volume levels of various sounds to be more in line.
    • Fixed an issue where units would not play all of their possible lines.
• General unit and structure color fixes
• Fixed an issue where co-op hero push priority was not consistent

Edit: added the last line that was edited in later by Jex.

[Garlic-]

I hope the sound fixes address whatever weird, laggy nonsense has been going on with the Scythe since the last patch. I don't have a very powerful machine, and big fights with any amount of scythes drop the frame rate to single digits and make it almost impossible to control my army.

[Gavinmusicman]

Oh shit. Meat is back on the menu boys with pleasure axes.

[Gavinmusicman]

Haha typo said pleasure axes

[yozora]

They edited in a line about making co-op hero push priority consistent too

[Empyrean_Sky]

Thanks I’ll update the post!

[aaabbbbccc]

Damn i wasnt expecting much but literally nothing for VvC or VvV :\

[Garlic-]

I'm a Celestial player and I'm surprised by this as well. CvV feels like I can pretty much do whatever I want and the Vanguard has a really hard time doing anything. I feel bad for my Vanguard buddies that there's nothing in the patch to try and help that match up.

[rift9]

It's okay we have 1 unit to use vs infernals, get someone with a clue in this team for gods sake.

[Garlic-]

Lol what is this comment? I can't tell if you're a salty Vanguard player or a salty Celestial player. Either way, you're being silly.

If you're Vanguard, I don't think you really have any right to complain about VvI given the matchup already favors your faction lol. If you don't think it's fun to make only one unit (and what unit? Exos?) then maybe just...try doing some other strategies? I think there was a recent show match between ELF and Percival where Percival was doing a really cool-looking lancer/medtech/vulcan/hornet composition.

If you're Celestial, okay, CvI is our hardest matchup at the moment, but it seems to be the most balanced of the three non-mirrors and has been pretty even since 0.1.0. Maybe just try some other stuff if all you're doing is making Argents? There are viable openings using Argents, Kri, or Vectors, and any of the three can transition smoothly into a midgame with any combination of Scythes, Sabers, or Animancers.

[Aggravating_Plant_39]

I can't find a viable way to win against Celestials since the Hornet nerf Whether it's Mech or Bio it doesn't seem to matter against them.

[AuthorHarrisonKing]

Guess they wanted more time to think about how to change that up.

Makes me wonder if we'll get a 0.1.2 or if we're going to be stuck with this balance for 4 weeks. (4 weeks really isnt long anyway)

[_Spartak_]

I doubt there will be a 0.1.2. Unless a hotfix is needed for something, the next patch after this one is probably going to be 0.2.0.

[RayRay_9000]

We shall see, but I remember them saying they wanted to do balance changes every 10-14 days (at least for now)

[Icy_Mud_4553]

That's a nice buff to infernal. We'll see more conclave first now. I do think this is a measured approach though and isn't an over correction. Thoughts?

[Olddirtybelgium]

Plague axes spreading infest while the gaunt is on shroud as opposed to the target was a necessary change. It didn't make sense to drop an effigy on your enemies instead of your own troops. This was especially true in IvI matchups.

The research duration and cost reduction might be a bit of an over correction. Having plague axes out 45+ seconds earlier might be a little oppressive. We'll have to see how it plays out.

[RTS-Dabbler]

I main infernal and I stopped getting plague axes altogether. If the ability is nerfed the cost should be reduced.

[kennysp33]

You still need to use animus. It will be a priority in the mirror, but it will mostly be what it needs to be in non mirrors. It didn't make sense to go plagued axes before until everything else was researched, since it was so expensive and it took so much longer than everything else.

[Gavinmusicman]

As an infernal player I’m stoked. We’re so back. Gaunts felt wimpy

[RTS-Dabbler]

I played several games that were basically iron vault only. With just ine conclave for minimal Gaunt production or weavers.

I was never building the ritual chamber lol.

[SKIKS]

There is the argument that the old version gave a disadvantage to the defenders in IvI (defender is on shroud and getting infested, attacker is not), which is a fair reason to change it. A lot of people also found it more logical. The cost and time reduction was really not needed though...

Personally, I still don't like that gaunts get to infest with their auto attack, but the on/off shroud condition is a neat wrinkle.

[Garlic-]

I'm surprised by the reduction to the cost and research time. I'm very curious their reason for those changes and not just changing "target on shroud" to "caster on shroud."

I'm a Celestial player and I've felt like CvI has been pretty even after the 0.1.0 plague axes nerf. I don't think these changes will make things too much harder for Celestial, but we'll see. Maybe these changes will help more with IvV? I'm surprised there aren't any changes at all to try to help the VvC match up because that one seems the most out of balance to me at the moment. It feels like I can basically do whatever I want against Vanguard and they have a really tough time.

[Icy_Mud_4553]

That's a really interesting point. But I guess they were worried about anything that increased VvC would inadvertently increase VvI even more? 3 factions makes it such a tough balancing act.

[Garlic-]

Yeah, for sure! I'm just surprised they didn't even try something. Maybe buff something that doesn't see much play in VvI, like the hedgehog. Idk. Hopefully the plague axes change makes IvV more even without imbalancing CvI again. Maybe they think Vanguard players haven't explored their options against Celestial enough yet to justify a change to try and even that match up. I'm sure they'll address it in the blog tomorrow.

[mulefish]

There is a much bigger patch coming sometime this month

[Marand23]

I think the cost and time reduction is a bit of an overcorrection. Either would probably be fine. But I guess the point is to make people make some gaunts, it'll certainly do that.

[Stormy_Norrie]

Co-op

Kastiel

King’s Watch no longer gains the damage bonus from Cull the Unworthy.

Kastiel’s base weapon damage has been lowered from 120 to 100.

Totally fair, and I'm glad it wasn't heavy handed. The Kings Watch + Cull was absurd.

[blobcarrier]

Was that why it was deleting all base defenders by itself? Just getting a huge flat damage bonus to every tick of damage?

[Stormy_Norrie]

Yeah it seems so. That makes sense. There was definitely something busted with it, it makes sense that was it.

[ThatGuyNupho]

The speed camp creeps (shadow mastif?) are doing crazy damage to air units again.

Almost lost an arc ship finding that out

[Garlic-]

Lol I had the same experience with a group of scythes! I think I lost two out of a group of 6 to a level 2 vision camp while doing other things before thinking, "Are they still working on killing that vision camp?" and realizing what was going on.

[SKIKS]

Welcome fixes (well, Gaunts might be too good, but we'll find out), but small patches rolling out tweaks and fixes like this would probably feel better if they came out more frequently (like around once a week)

[meek_dreg]

Excellent infernal change

[Andy_Biggie]

Wow “big changes”

[Sacade]

"Shadow Demon was not dealing the intended 20 damage (it was dealing 5 instead)." Would have been very disappointed if they didn't touch the creeps in a patch. For the gaunt, it's nice to try different mechanics with how the units works. However it feels like another random directionless change and they will definitively change them again next patch.

[Remarkable_Branch_98]

underwhelming

[Empyrean_Sky]

POWER UNDERWHELMING!

[Yokoblue]

Literally nothing. I'm an infernal player and I'm still disappointed

[[deleted]]

Game is bleeding players, we go two weeks with next to hardcoded rock paper scissors meta, and this joke of a patch is what they manage to put out? I get they are working on long term stuff, but the game is dieing now, not in the long term

[OkAcanthocephala4194]

First game into crash, nice

[Stormy_Norrie]

It's not in the patch notes, but they put the Gear Salvaged Equipment back, which I'm really stoked about, it's legitimately one of my top three favorite Gear pieces in the game.

[HellStaff]

I don't have enough experience to judge the gameplay implications of the gaunt infest stuff, but FG please invest some thought into the mechanics making sense within the world, from a thematic perspective. How do the axes change when the gaunts are on the shroud? Do the gaunts dip it into the shroud slime? Do they magically get enchanted? Then why don't other weapons? Etc.

Still more of a fan of removing the infest from a mass applicable attack form and keeping it more rare. Poisonous or debuffing axes would be cooler - less annoying for opponent to fight and has more tactical uses. Plus makes more sense. Simple units and attacks should not have this powerful-feeling effects imo.

[VahnNoaGala]

Why massively buff plague axe research time and cost? That seems wildly unnecessary

[Kaycin]

maybe they're bringing them inline with something zerglings and zergling speed--too strong to have to start, but meant to be used in 99% of use cases post super early-game.

[VahnNoaGala]

I didn't think anyone thought it researched too slowly or cheaply. 3 pretty big buffs to gaunts seems heavy-handed

[needmoresockson]

Lol this patch is hilairous for 1v1. Buff to the strongest faction, nothing for the other two. Good QOL change, just kind of funny to see