Stormgate Hotfix and Balance Patch 0.3.2

Hotkeys and Automated Control Groups:

• Missing hotkeys on the command card when using ‘By-Command’ style hotkeys have been fixed on several units across 1v1 and Co-op:
  
  • Recallable Vector
    
  • Skull of Shedda
    
  • Ryker’s Biokinetics Lab
    
  • Maloc’s Iron Vault
    
  • Maloc’s Twilight Spire
    
  • Maloc’s Fiend
    
  • Warz’s Shrines
    
  • Warz’s Fiend
    
  • Warz’s Flayed Dragon
    
  • Kastiel’s Collection Array
• The following units should now be available to assign hotkeys and automated control groups:
  
  • Recallable Vector
    
  • Skull of Shedda
• Fixed an issue where certain abilities would not work if you were shift-queuing them AND using “By-Command” style hotkeys.
  
• Fixed an issue where morphed units that have been manually removed from a control group would be re-added by automated control groups when morphing.
  
• Fixed an issue where dropping units from a transport would add them to a control group if you had an automated control group setup for them.

Gameplay:

• Fixed an issue where users would occasionally get kicked out of a game with no error message.
  
• Fixed an issue where some regions were incorrectly seeing tombstones, green blood, and removal of bones from deceased units on the map.

Balance Changes: General

• Workers:
  
  • B.O.B.s, Imps, and Prisms no longer have the Light Tag.

With our changes to worker health across the board, sometimes the ability to kill workers got too volatile. In addition, in the past, we’ve had to balance our anti-Light units around the fact that they could decimate workers, which we felt was too restrictive. These changes will hopefully allow us to better modulate the pace at which workers die as well as design stronger anti-Light units.
Vanguard:

• B.O.B.:
  
  • Health increased from 100 to 110.

Last patch, we greatly decreased the health of workers across the game, and we feel the B.O.B. is now perhaps a bit too vulnerable. In general, we feel that just modifying the health of workers tends to get us into situations where harassment is either too volatile or too difficult. In the future, we’ll be looking for alternate levers to allow us to modulate this dynamic.

• Lancer:
  
  • Health decreased from 240 to 210.
    
  • Damage increased from 10 (+5 vs Light, +5 vs Structure) to 12 (+3 vs Light, + 3 vs Structure).

We’re going to tune the Lancer to be more of a brawler than a tank, which we believe will enable more exciting battles, especially on tier-1. In addition, we’ll be reducing the specialized damage this unit has, which was a goal we had stated for all tier-1 units in a previous patch.

• Exo:
  
  • Damage increased from 14 (+3 vs Heavy) to 15 (+3 vs Heavy).

Yes, a +1 damage change on Exos. Last patch, we reduced the range of Exos in order to temper their kiting power and grant more counterplay. We feel this was a change in the right direction, but they’re feeling a bit weak, so we’re giving them just a smidge more power.

• MedTech:
  
  • Offensive Nanoswarm damage decreased from 300 damage to 200 damage over 20 seconds.

We saw some cool suicide plays from MedTechs against Prisms in recent tournaments. Though this was really cool, it’s probably not super healthy in the long run, so we’ll be reverting the amount of damage they can do offensively.

• Hornet:
  
  • Fixed an issue where Skymines did not cost Luminite.
    
  • Skymine's intended cost decreased from 25 to 10.
    
  • Anti-ground damage decreased 8 to 7.

We fixed an issue where Skymines were not costing the intended amount of money. At the same time, we received feedback that Skymines were too expensive at 25 Luminite, so we’ll try lowering the cost of Skymines in this patch.

In addition, because of the new flocking behavior, we’ve seen air units generally get more powerful. This is especially true for Hornets, units that often receive a powerful area-of-effect defensive Nanoswarm bonus. As such, we’d like to slightly decrease the straight-up fighting power of Hornets against ground units.
Infernals

• Fiend:
  
  • Damage decreased from 8 to 7.

Our most recent buff to Fiends allowed them to be slightly too destructive.

• Hexen:
  
  • Fixed a bug where Venom Traps could damage structures.
    
  • Miasma range decreased from 13 to 10.
    
  • Miasma damage multiplier increased from 8x to 10x.
    
    • Damage per second increased from 16 to 20.

We both wanted Miasma to be a stronger threat in general and allow it to have more counterplay.

• Magmadon:
  
  • Cost changed from 250/150 to 275/125.
• Hellborne:
  
  • Cost changed from 250/150 to 300/125.
    
  • Hellborne damage changed from 25 (+75 vs Structure) to 30 (+30 vs Heavy, +30 vs Structure).
    
  • Shatter damage decreased from 25% bonus to 20% bonus.
    
  • Actual splash damage changed from 6.25 (+18.75 vs Structure) to 6 (+6 vs Heavy, +6 vs Structure

As Therium starvation is one of the biggest complaints from Infernal players, we’d like to tweak some unit costs to lean more towards Luminite. In addition, we’ve received feedback that Infernals could use a stronger single-target anti-heavy weapon since mechanical Vanguard strategies can be sometimes hard for Infernals.
Celestials

• Collection Array:
  
  • Build time increased from 90 seconds to 100 seconds.
    
  • Morph Core morph time increased from 60 seconds to 70 seconds.
• Prism
  
  • Build time increased from 55 seconds to 60 seconds.

Celestial economy was slightly too far ahead relative to the other factions, so we’re making some tweaks to help balance them out.

• Top-Bar:
  
  • Purify Power Cost increased from 20 to 30.
    
  • Purify Recharge time increased from 120 seconds to 180 seconds.

As players have gotten better at the game, they’ve learned more about the power of this Top-Bar ability. We’re adjusting the cost and cooldown of the ability to better match its currently perceived power.

• Arcship:
  
  • Skyward Salvation heal per second decreased from 15 to 10.
    
  • Skyward Salvation duration increased from 20 seconds to 30 seconds.
    
  • Total health restored unchanged.

Skyward Salvation was slightly too powerful in certain rush strategies so we’ve tuned that down without impacting its out-of-combat effectiveness.

• Argent:
  
  • Damage decreased from 10 (+3 vs Heavy) to 9 (+2 vs Heavy).
    
  • High Energy energy cost decreased from 10 to 5.
    
    • Resulting High Energy damage changed from 15(+4.5 vs Heavy) to 13.5 (+3 vs Heavy).

We wanted Argents to be a more reliable tier-1 unit, so we’re reducing its charged-up damage in exchange for more consistent damage in moderately-long fights.

• Kri:
  
  • The Radiant Fury trait now increases Blaze of Light damage by +20 (+20 vs Light), down from 40.

We’d like to tune Radiant Fury to be more specialized, especially in a way that prevents them from being able to decimate worker lines.

• Vector:
  
  • Anti-ground range increased from 3 to 4.
    
  • Anti-ground damage changed from 9 to 8 (+2 vs Light).

Now that workers no longer have the Light tag, we feel more comfortable giving Vectors more of a combat role.

• Animancer:
  
  • Fixed an issue where Dark Prophecy would sometimes not deal the intended amount of damage.
    
  • Dark Prophecy no longer ramps up in damage over time.

Behind the scenes, this was one of the most complicated abilities in the game without enough coolness to justify the complexity. We’ll be reducing the complexity to enable it to deal more consistent damage.

• Archangel:
  
  • Unit size decreased from 1.2 to 1.

Archangels still felt a bit too clumsy as a melee unit, and we think they could afford to shrink down a bit given their current art.