Playtest 178 - Squad Refactor and Pathing Changes

starfighter · January 7

TL;DR: Happy 2016! Welcome to our first playtest of the new year. Thanks again for all of your help and support in our 1k playtest last month. We've started working on changes and fixes based on your experience and feedback!

Tonight's playtest includes a squad refactor and pathing changes, as well as other minor squad updates. See you at 8 pm pacific tonight!

Squads Refactor

We’ve refactored squads with an aim at clarifying roles in battles, primarily by rebalancing T1 units and making adjustments to damage and armor types. Now all T1s have circumstances in which they can deal a lot of damage against other T1s and other circumstances in which the reverse is true.

T1 units have been classified as either backline, frontline, or anti-frontline. Backline units tend to deal solid damage from a range, frontline units protect them, and anti-frontline units can break the frontline. Under ideal circumstances, these units form a rough, conditional rock-paper scissor relationship: anti-frontline beats frontline, frontline beats backline (if they can reach them), and backline beats anti-frontline. What makes this interesting is that sometimes the reverse is true - Frontline units can get a great surround to beat anti-frontline units. Backline units can kite or get into a good choke to beat frontline units. Anti-frontline units can isolate and pick off backline units. This creates tension, where each unit type is jockeying for the best position in which it's strongest.

Pathing Changes

We've adjusted how pathing works. It should now be easier to move around allied units while in motion. Note that these changes do not affect movement around enemies.

Squad Changes

Grath

Terrapin Troopers are now considered a frontline unit.
Howling Commando's auto-attack has been buffed to do more splash damage.
Rustborn Rhino's auto-attack damage has been substantially buffed, though their attack speed has been reduced.

Alder

Seedbots are now considered an anti-frontline unit.
Sproutlings now have shorter range but significantly increased damage to frontline units. They also have a longer duration.

Hydros

Scuttleguards are now considered a frontline unit.

Ryme

Glacial Rangers are now considered a backline unit. Their range has been reduced and the auto-attack reset on their slow has been removed.

Eris

Sandstingers are now considered a backline unit.
Eris's ultimate, Chaos Bolt, has been changed - there is an initial wind-up, but once cast the projectile itself moves significantly faster.

Vex

Sparkbots are now considered a backline unit.

Celesta

Wisps are now considered a backline unit.

Vela

Raptors are now considered a backline unit.

Questions

What did pathing through allies feel like?
Tell us lots about your squad battling experience
- Early, Mid, Late
Did you notice any differences in performance?
Any other comments or questions?

Pursuit · January 7

Playing as Hydros, there were still quite a few moments where I blocked my allies or my allies blocked me during fights. Looking back on my games though I didn't feel frustrated playing as Hydros whereas before I really disliked playing as Hydros because of the pathing.
I played Hydros with an Eris ally all 4 games, Hydros felt extraordinarily strong in this version of the game. The Aquadillo / Quadrapus combo is tanky, gives good support via slows and healing, and feels fun to play. Scuttleguards feel much stronger than before in the early game, although their roll ability still triggers when I dont want it to often and their large collision size means it's rare that all units contribute their already low DPS to battles.
Performance seemed worse today than before, I had some weird lag issues where my units would just stop and not respond to my commands (wouldn't move / abilities wouldn't activate / ect). I'm not 100% certain this wasn't just bad control on my part, but it felt like it was on the game's side.
Melee units felt a lot stronger in this version of the game, I even ventured to try maxing on Scuttleguard's as Hydros which before this patch I felt was just plain bad, it still felt much weaker than going for fast Aquadillo's but it didn't feel terrible like it did before.