Greetings @everyone
I'm happy to announce version 22.12.1 as a final release for this year!
This version features unit-power adjustments across the board that should tackle the major issues in the current meta.

But what I'm most excited about is a taste of the new philosophy for support powers: They should encourage interactivity instead of shutting it down.
As such, the Catylist Missile does not kill Tiberium-loaded targets anymore but instead deals heavy damage. As a tradeoff, it has a lower cost and a much-reduced cooldown. And for Scrin, the Phase Field has moved to a T2 power and becomes cheaper but has a shorter duration.

But as always, the full details can be found in the changelog.

I hope everybody keeps enjoying the winter season.
I will be off on vacation for the next three weeks.

Sayonara!


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Patchlog Version 22.12.1

All Factions

• Refineries:
  
  
  • Lowered docking time 9.5s -> 9s (same as vanilla)
  
  
• Fixed typos across the board
  
• Resolved several matchups where a unit could survive with 1HP. This includes Pitbulls, Devourer Tanks, Myrmidons, Tripods, and Rocket Indoctrines.

Common Nod

• Shadow Team:
  
  
  • Guaranteed to kill a Power Plants when veteran
    
  • Increased range 250 -> 275
  
  
• Catalyst Missile
  
  
  • Lowered damage against Harvesters and Refineries, so it barely doesn’t kill them
    
  • Lowered cost 3000$ -> 2000$
    
  • Lowered recharge time 6m -> 2m 30s

Note: The Catalyst Missile can be used more often and is cheaper, but it requires units nearby to deal additional damage to deal strong eco damage.

Renegades

• Vertigo
  
  
  • Lowered damage to Harvesters 100% -> 50%
    
  • Lowered range with Nuclear Components 150 -> 125

Note: Range on normal vertigos is 100.

Black Hand

• High Confessor
  
  
  • Is affected by the “Word of Kane” upgrade
    
  • Fixed visual indication when buffing units

Marked of Kane

• Basilisk:
  
  
  • Added visual indication for vehicles that are affected by the aura
  
  
• Tib Trooper:
  
  
  • Don’t slow targets before the upgrade is researched
  
  
• The Reapers:
  
  
  • Anti-Air Attack: Increased damage 360 -> 390.

Common GDI

• Power Packs
  
  
  • Increased healing per second 5 HP -> 7.5 HP.
    
  • Red Arrow: Increased healing per second 30 HP -> 45 HP.
  
  
• Grenadiers
  
  
  • Added 1-second delay before throwing EMP Grenades
    
  • Lowered health 300 HP -> 200 HP
  
  
• Pitbull Mortars
  
  
  • Bugfix: Now they only deal 50% damage to infantry
    This was always intended and has been the case for ZOCOM Grenades already.

RRF

• Composite Armor
  
  
  • Lowered armor increase 66% -> 50%

Steel Talons

• Titans
  
  
  • Lowered health 3780 HP -> 3600 HP
    
  • Added pre-attack delay of 0.15 seconds (same as other T1 tanks)
  
  
• Railgun Accelerators
  
  
  • Lowered cooldown 2m 30s -> 2m
    
  • Lowered cost 1500$ ? 500$
    
  • Increased rate of fire +75% -> +100%

ZOCOM

• Echo Division (Riflemen and Missile Squad only):
  
  
  • Lowered health 200 -> 160.
    
  • Does not benefit from Power Packs
    
  • Changed damage type Cannon -> Rocket
    
  • Added small pre-attack delay
  
  
• Tiberium Field Suits
  
  
  • Missile Squads: Decreased damage reduction by 50% -> 40%.
  
  
• Zone Raiders
  
  
  • Increased range 290 -> 310
  
  
• Echo Trooper
  
  
  • Increased rate of fire 4.55s -> 4.2s
  
  
• Sonic Shells
  
  
  • Predators: Increased rate of fire 2.6s -> 2.5s
    
  • Mammoth Tanks: Increased rate of fire 2.7s -> 2.4s
    
  • Increased Cost: 3000$ -> 3500$
    
  • Increased research time 3m -> 3m 15s
  
  
• ZOCOM Infantry Upgrades:
  
  
  • Moved Echo Division to Armory
    
  • Moved Tiberium Field Suits to Command Post

Note: ZOCOM has a strong power spike in T2, aided by the joint timing of Field Suits, Extreme Condition Armor, or Echo Division.

Especially, Missile Squads benefitted from this greatly, as Echo Division + Field Suits gave them a total increase of stats by ~280%. With the above adjustments, Missile Squads level out at a total of +240%. This will bring their midgame pushes to a more similar level to that of other factions, albeit remaining very powerful.

To round out the faction, I handed out some small buffs to lesser-used T3 units.

Common Scrin

• Seekers
  
  
  • Lowered damage against harvesters by 10%
  
  
• Stormriders
  
  
  • Increased health 2400 -> 2880
  
  
• Planetary Assault Carrier
  
  
  • Lowered damage of Ion Storm 200 -> 180
    
  • Lowered rate of fire of Ion Storm 1.8s -> 2s
    
  • Lowered health of drones 480 -> 360
  
  
• Mechapede
  
  
  • Increased damage of disks 25 -> 40
    
  • Increased range 330 -> 340
  
  
• Devourer Tanks:
  
  
  • Lowered damage 680 -> 600 and Increased rate of fire
    (DPS remains the same)

Note: The Dev Tank did too much overkill damage (without charge) to Pitbulls, Bikes, etc., and, as such, was a suboptimal choice against them. As a T2 unit, it must be a better answer against T1 units, especially vehicles. With this, it still kills Pitbulls and Attack Bikes with two shots but has a much higher rate of fire.

• Phase Field
  
  
  • Moved from Technology Assembler to Nerve Center
    
  • Lowered duration 40s -> 10s
    
  • Lowered cost 1500$ -> 1000$
    
  • Harvesters cannot harvest while phased (but can still deploy their load)

Note: Having nerfed several T2 powers and moved Buzzer Swarm to T3, Scrin needed something in T2. Scrin is dependent on support powers throughout the game, and Stasis can’t be the only answer all the time.

As a general design rule, I want Scrin powers to be shorter lasting and less powerful but also have them cheaper and with a lower cooldown.

Messenger-8

• Gunwalker
  
  
  • Increased damage when upgraded 100s -> 120s
    
  • Slightly lowered rate of fire

Note: While the DPS is only slightly increased, many infantry targets will require 1 less shot to kill.

Traveler-59

• Cultists:
  
  
  • Moved from Nerve Center to Technology Assembler
    
  • Increased health 160 -> 240
    
  • Increased speed 55 -> 65
    
  • Increased range 160 -> 180
  
  
• Mindphasers:
  
  
  • Moved from Technology Assembler to Nerve Center
  
  
• Neural Parasites:
  
  
  • Added Stasis Chamber as a dependency
  
  
• Upgrades:
  
  
  • Moved Kinetic Barriers to Technology Assembler
    
  • Moved Cascading Haze to the Nerve Center

Note: Mindphasers added too little in value at T3, and since they deal Grenade damage, their role is much closer to those of Black Hand or Grenadier units anyway. In contrast, to not overpopulate the T2, the Cultists were moved to T3 but were buffed and are now filling the classic T3 role of “anti-heavy Tank”.

Kinetic Barriers were moved to T3 to delay the infantry power spike for Traveler.