Dear Silica Community,
The time has finally come for the air units to make their debut in Strategy mode! You've had enough time to test them out in Arena and provide us with enough valuable feedback for Dram to be able to tweak their parameters. This major update is the first and the biggest one for this year! There's a lot of additions besides the air units themselves such as the relevant structures to produce the air units (Air Factory, Grand Spawning Cyst, Colossal Spawning Cyst) and much more.
You can check the full changelog here:
Major
Added: Air Factory (Gunship, Fighter, Dropship, Bomber)
Added: Grand Spawning Cyst (Goliath)
Added: Colossal Spawning Cyst (Defiler, Colossus)
Added: Anti-Air Rocket Turret
Added: Monument Valley level
Added: UI indicators for stuck units in RTS
Added: Unit cap for Strategy game mode including values in RTS UI (may be set up low/medium/high/infinite)
Added: Camera behind vehicles moves upward when looking up to allow better view
Improved: Rifle animations
Improved: SMG animations
Improved: Infantry FPS camera smoothness
Improved: Infantry movement over mildly rough terrain
Minor
Added: Cyst popping effect for alien unit production completion
Added: Floodlights to factories
Added: Descriptions to Gunship, Fighter, Dropship, Bomber
Added: MG turrets to Research Facility on Tier 1
Added: AA Rocket turrets to Research Facility on Tier 3
Added: Weak point on underbelly of the Goliath
Added: Strong point on Goliath's front legs
Added: Aircraft are slower to turn when using after-burners
Added: Level Of Detail models to alien air creatures for performance
Added: Aircraft starts landed when produced (to allow players to quickly hop in on the pad)
Fixed: Constructible units/structures showed incorrect durability values in the UI
Fixed: Turrets occasionally spammed 'Cannot send RPC for script'
Fixed: Elevator janky bouncing (still mild, will be improved later)
Fixed: Idle Harvester/Shrimp icon appeared wrong on clients
Changed: Fighter rockets changed to large missiles with corresponding damage and effects
Changed: Heavy Vehicle Factory no longer needs Light Vehicle Factory to be built
Changed: Ultra Heavy Vehicle Factory no longer needs Heavy Vehicle Factory to be built
Changed: Health and armor values for Wasp
Changed: Health and armor values for Dragonfly
Changed: Health and armor values for Firebug
Changed: Health and armor values for Impaler
Changed: Health and armor values for Goliath
Changed: Shrimp extraction speed
Changed: Shrimp cost
Changed: Increased rolling speed of Goliath
Changed: Gunship rockets to forward firing
Changed: Gunship minigun damage
Changed: Gunship less maneuverable but strafes better, slower forward speed
Changed: Fighter less maneuverable, but faster forward speed
Changed: Heavy Armored Car MG cannot aim down as much
Changed: Hover Tank MG cannot aim down as much
Changed: Turret build time to 80s
Changed: Heavy Turret build time to 80s
Changed: Anti-Air Turret build time to 80s
Changed: Greater Spawning Cyst no longer requires Lesser Spawning Cyst
Changed: Reduced Bomber health
Changed: Reduced Fighter health/armor
Changed: Bomber turn rate reduced
Changed: Human vehicle MG turrets aim upwards more
Improved: SMG sounds
Improved: Gunship rocket spread/damage
Improved: Gunship rockets appearance
Improved: Air units pathfinding route processing for both aliens and humans
Improved: Aircraft AI movement handling
Known Issues
Harvester pathfinding is problematic on the Monument Valley map at present, so please bear with us while we fix it. Overall pathfinding is due for drastic improvements, including collision avoidance, now that the air units are out.
Performance is now top priority along with aforementioned pathfinding improvements, however there are times where it still suffers. This will be the primary focus for the coming weeks, so expect big improvements here.
Transport vehicles do not yet transport AI troops and cannot be instructed to eject troops that have been manually loaded in. This will be finished in the coming week or two.
You can also check the official trailer for the air units here:
As the whole gameplay and dynamic is about to change on the scorching deserts and skies of Baltarus, here are some parting words from Dram himself:
"Hello people of Baltarus!
This latest build introduces a number of important improvements and changes to hopefully make play more fun and interesting. The air units are of course the largest addition, enhancing Strategy mode with a new layer of depth. Apart from this there is also the introduction of a unit cap system. This will help with not only performance, but also balance and it is possible to choose between 4 settings: Low/Medium/High/Infinite. Changes in terms of health, armor and damage have also occurred to hopefully make things a bit more balanced.
I also consider it crucial to be completely transparent and directly state that the AI is still on the weaker end and will be a big focus going forward. Apart from that, the primary focus for the next few weeks will be on performance, which the game still suffers from in late game (although helped a lot with the addition of the unit cap system).
So on that note, I hope you enjoy the latest update and please feel free to send feedback my way via Discord or Steam. The game is still in Early Access after all and therefore heavily influenced by your feedback! So thank you to everyone for providing feedback in all its forms.
Take care everyone, especially in these trying times, stay safe.
Martin Melicharek"