Playtest 232: Unit Scale Overhaul; 2 New Mercenaries; UI and Readability Tuning; Unit Renames!
Treisk
Member, Administrator
Playtest 232: Unit Scale Overhaul; 2 New Mercenaries; UI and Readability Tuning; Unit Renames!
Quick Note about Tonight's Playtest
If you're playtesting tonight, we'd like to encourage you to join the Discord for a quick discussion about an upcoming out-of-game progression system!
General Gameplay
- Caterpillars at the Caterpillar Trees now must be targeted manually
- This is a temporary solution for the unwanted behavior of attacking towards an enemy player and, instead, attacking caterpillars.
- Each Tree may now have up to three active Caterpillars at a time
- Caterpillars will now spawn in 20-second intervals; this spawn is pushed back if the maximum number of Caterpillars are already active
- Titan health now has more steep scaling after the third Titan Fight resolution
- Base Healing Zones have moved from the Warp Spire to the Shield Battery
- Base Healing Zone healing: 20 health per second ⇒ 30 health per second
- The Super Healing Zone has been removed from the protected production area in your main base
Economy
- Starting Supply: 40 ⇒ 32
- Max supply: 100 ⇒ 80
- Gem Value: 20 BioShards ⇒ 15 BioShards
- BioShard generator value 40-110 ⇒ 20-55
- Unit upgrade costs have been re-costed, and can now be found at 75, 100, and 150 BioShards depending on the power of the upgrade.
- Bioshard rewards from creep camps are now distributed as Gems (the same Gems that drop from Caterpillar Trees)
- Gems now have their values shared among players with a nearby unit (within 15 range)
- Stat upgrade costs have been adjusted
- Tier 1: **40 BioShards ⇒ 75 BioShards**
- Tier 2: 80 BioShards ⇒ 100 BioShards
- Tier 3: 120 BioShards ⇒ 150 BioShards
- Tier 4: 160 BioShards ⇒ 200 BioShards
UI & Audio
- Energy and BioShards have received new icons; and its color language has been updated to match
- Added a short glow and a sound for when an ability finishes its cooldown.
- Collecting resources now display a floating UI element over your resource counter, and added a sound for when these events occur
- Removed the EXP/resource floats when defeating enemy units
- Vision Wards have been moved to the Ability Grid
- Removed the "Upgrade complete" sound from generators that finish their task
- Added error sounds for failing or being unable to cast an ability
- Hovering over a unit now displays the unit's affiliation (cyan for yours; green for allied; red for enemy) within its selection halo.
- This behavior also occurs when box-selecting over several of your own units
- Unit outlines now display a unit's affiliation when hovered if Unit Outlines are enabled in Graphics Settings
- Fixed a bug that prevented chat from clearing its input after cancelling with Escape
Units
Unit Scales
- The average unit size has increased by ~20%
- The areas of effect, ranges, and projectile speeds have been increased for several abilities.
Names
- Several units have been renamed!
- Bramblethorn Goliath ⇒ Bramblethorn
- Glacial Ranger ⇒ Arctic Newt
- Lavaspitter ⇒ Lancer
- Scarab ⇒ Exofiend
- Kingpin ⇒ Dredgecrawler
- Beetle Fighter ⇒ Cinder Beetle
- Beetle ⇒ Cinderling
- Plated Warrior ⇒ Nautilusk
- Shield Slug ⇒ Aquanaut
- Sprinter ⇒ Sabre
- Toxin Alchemist ⇒ Toxin Mystic
- Chiller ⇒ Cryowalker
- Teleporter ⇒ Warp Drone
- Ignitor ⇒ Emberfiend
- Healer ⇒ Patchbot
- Trapper ⇒ Snerp Herder
- Slow Trap ⇒ Snerp
- Transport ⇒ Vespid Carrier
Blue
- Nautilusk
- BioShard cost: 10 ⇒ 25
- Aquanaut
- BioShard cost: 10 ⇒ 25
Green
- Howling Commando
- BioShard cost: 20 ⇒ 25
Red
- Cinder Beetle
- BioShard cost: 10 ⇒ 25
- Apocalyte
- Destructive Prophecy now draws a team-colored spell zone
White
- Sabre
- BioShard cost: 10 ⇒ 25
Mercenaries
- Reintroduced the Juggernaut!
- The Juggernaut is a very slow, high-health mercenary that forces nearby enemy structures to attack it. It may only attack enemy structures
- NEW UNIT: Siege Engineer!
- A massive siege weapon manned by an Engineer. Can entrench itself, which takes several seconds. Once deployed, it will attack enemy structures from extremely long range. Gains 100 Physical Resist and Magical Resist while deployed. Also takes several seconds to UN-deploy! Use it wisely!
Comments
The resource icons don't read well on the deck picker.
It's nice to see some extra unit detail; there were a lot of things that showed up in the perspective shots used as button background which weren't very visible in game. I didn't notice a particular sense of the view being cramped today.
Tried a bot game first, and got absolutely crushed. Their peculiar vulnerability to celesta ult was the only thing that kept it from being a much shorter game.
FYI Hydros ult works on team titan while there are still two in the center.
Siege engineers feel too expensive by a factor of 8 for Shard cost and 3-4 for Energy cost. It takes several minutes to gun down a single tower despite them dying to 1-2 volleys of fire from even small tier-1 forces. They felt like donations every time i used them, even when I protected them for long stretches of time.
The new models are easier to use/understand (the old mechanic of requiring energy to use was extremely confusing).
It feels strange to have both siege options be lvl 3. I'd be more interested in the units if one type was Tier 2 and the other Tier 3, as that would encourage different types of strats and timings depending on what I was going for.
Gameplay
Bulk Notes
(1.1) - I tried playing some more damage oriented decks today to see if it felt like capping the Titans went faster, and it still didn't, ie. that process still felt pretty slow.
(1.2) - I like the healing zone change. I suppose it is a small amount, but I like the further differentiation in terms of "active" buildings (and interacting with them). I liked having to keep track of where I was moving units if I wanted to try to use some healing. I think I also like the Super healing zone removal. I like more of a decision whether to move forward for healing, and also that it presumably, at least slightly, speeds up a terminal game.
Economy
(2.1) - Max Supply reduction felt maybe a tad limiting in a long game tonight, but only a bit. Noticeable, but not negative. Biggest change I felt was probably the upgrade costs, in both cases definitely made them feel more like a calculated choice vs. units. Is good, this.
UI/Audio
(3.1) - Love the error bonk sound, very welcome addition. Hovering and unit outlines weren't immediately obvious, but I didn't remember this change when it actually came to engagements.
Units
Names
(4.1) - In general, the names are fine. Previous ones were functional, these are more narrative. Either are good. I think it would be fine if you changed "Snerp" to "Derp", in part because it's a bit cooler to be "derped" than "snerped". In addition to the unit names, this was the first time in a while that I'd looked at the collection screen, and it was so awesome to see the [deity] names. Can't wait to find out more about this planet.
Gameplay
(4.2) - Didn't get a chance to play with either of the new mercenaries, but did see them in action, cool to have them in here.
Progression
(5.1) - It really is cool that you guys are getting to this point, since I'd imagine so many things that are roadmap have to be in place before you can start to look at this. Stoked to try it out, see what some of the outgame interactions are like with this system. It also feels like another area where there might be tie-ins back to the browser that started this whole thing out. Profile graphics, unlocked replay tools, who knows?
I like the caterpillar change. Before, it felt very unclear when one would spawn and why. This way is much more clear.
I like the healing zone changes. It makes the shield generators feel more important all game long, rather than just as structures to defend from a titan.
I think I like the supply changes. The map is kinda small to be dealing with very large armies on all sides. Also, I felt like engagements were a little easier to parse, or maybe I'm just getting better at the game. That could also be due to the model size changes instead of the supply cap changes, too.
The upgrade costs were annoying at first (seems everything takes more Shards now), but I think it was a good change; the costs feel more in line with the benefits now. Before, the Tier 1 upgrades were just too cheap for how much they did. As CohLysion said above, it feels like upgrades vs. units is a meaningful choice now.
I also like the new gem sharing. Feels more fair and intuitive, and you don't have to worry about sharing "etiquette", at least as much.
I'm sure you guys already know this, but the generator icons have not yet been updated to match the new resource icons.
A great set of changes! I'm excited about where Atlas is going.
overall I like the name changes, but KINGPIN changed to "Dredgcrawler"? please no,
don't take my KINGPIN away
+1. I'll defiantly call them Kingpins for the rest of eternity no matter what oppressive tags you plaster upon them. I can hear Cycle yelling KIIINNGGGPPIIINNNSS over discord. Yelling dredgecrawlers just doesn't have the same zest.
I feel like the name dredgecrawler has seeped into existence from the current stale, sorry state of Kingpins. If Kingpins are permanently delegated to a position where they hobble around the map haplessly regurgitating their sorrows then so be it, keep the apt name.
But Kingpins should be the kings of pinning.
Make Kingpins Great Again.