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Hello Commanders,

The timeline has set and the changes Oracle foretold have arrived. Two weeks ago we teased a balance patch, since then we've used our Open Beta to get community feedback on the proposed changes and we're very happy with the feedback we've received during this process. There are quite the changes in here and I'm not sure whether the name Hotfix really suits anymore but we hope that it makes the Experience smoother.

Again we find ourselves at the start of the holiday season and it's been... a year. Naturally the Holidays are a bit different this time around but no matter how you spend the holidays, whether it's alone or with friends and family, Digital or Physical, we hope you get to enjoy the now and are able to forget about your worries.

We at Triumph Studios wish you very Happy Holidays and stay safe this Holiday Season!

Update V1.403 - Update Notes
Updates
Features
  • Added an Undo Movement button into combat. This lets you undo the last unit move that you made, as long as the unit was not damaged en route, and no other unit abilities or operations have been triggered since.
General
  • Removed the reputation bonus for sending gifts through diplomatic trades; this was causing exploits in both the Oathbound campaign and in multiplayer games where players could just send gifts back and forth for quick reputation gains.
  • Changes to how the scan grail cypher interaction is working. After scanning the player will receive an event.
  • Blocked Grails from spawning on Frontier worlds
  • Updated the Tooltip for Residential Exploitations to make clearer how they function
  • Updated the Tooltip for Popular Support to match the Triceratops Changes
Galactic Empires
General

  • Galactic Empire planets that feature grail quests will now only spawn grail sites that are not present (and completed by the player) on any of the conquered planets in the empire to make sure players do not have to rely on random chance for gathering all relics. (If all grails have been captured then grails will be fully random again)
  • The available planets for galactic empires will now feature up to 7 (but not fewer than 3) planets that are based on the current level of the planet you will have: 1 planet of the right difficulty, 1 planet that is above your ideal difficulty (if possible) and 1 planet for each difficulty level below your ideal difficulty.
  • Planet Traits that involve NPC factions will now no longer allow playing on the small map size in order to prevent issues where too few dwellings would spawn the map.
  • Clicking on any added requisition item to remove it will now also make the related tab with available items selected on the left side of the screen.
  • All Hero Items unlocked via Progression are now 'free items' meaning they do not have to be chosen as Requisition items to be available in game.
  • Summon units are now available as requisition items when playing their respective race as well since you cannot otherwise build these units.
  • Racial Secret Tech unit variants are now available as Requisition options when playing that secret tech.
Planet Traits
  • The ‘Settle the Claim' secondary objective, no longer triggers on any diplomatic state change while an alliance is maintained with either target player.
  • ‘Hive Development’ Empire Request now completes on 12 population rather than 16 to prevent issues with the Limited Space planet trait.
  • Lowered the spawn weight of non-xenoplague spawners while the ‘Xenoplague Infestation’ trait is present
  • Lowered the step count of 'Cleanse the Infestation' from 5 to 3 and increased the reward.
  • 'Cleanse The Infestation' now also completes when clearing Livestock spawners (since these often also include Xenoplague units)
  • ‘Voidbringer Thrallworld’ can no longer combine with ‘Aggressive Settlers’ (as the thrallworld's Ravaged world basis does not allow settlements)
  • ‘Penguin Hive’ trait can no longer combine with Spawner Override Traits
Requisitions
  • Added the Oathbound Battle Suit Hero Vehicles to the appropriate Unit Unlocks.
  • Added ‘Pestilence’ Hero Weapon to the Xenoplague Progression Level 5
  • Added ‘Acrimonious’ Hero Weapon to the Xenoplague Progression Level 10
  • Added ‘Malady’ Hero Weapon to the Xenoplague Progression Level 18
  • Added ‘Hasher SMG’ Hero Weapon to the Synthesis Progression Level 5
  • Added ‘Voidblades’ Hero Weapon to the Voidtech Progression Level 5
  • Added ‘Siphoner Staff’ Hero Weapon to the Heritor Progression Level 11
  • Added ‘Link Shard’ Hero Weapon to the Heritor Progression Level 17
  • Added ‘High Lord’ Vehicle Hero Weapon to the Heritor Progression Level 20
  • Added ‘Structural Integrity Diminisher’ Entropy Mod to the Oathbound Progression Level 20
  • Added Dvar ‘Phoenix Walker’ race variant to Promethean Progression Level 20
  • Added Kir'ko ‘Phoenix Walker’ race variant to Promethean Progression Level 20
Races, Techs & NPC Factions
Assembly

  • Swapped the positions of Advanced Bionics and Molecular Computing in the tech tree
Dvar
  • Dvar Trencher - Reduced armor from 3 to 2
  • Dvar Foreman - Increased HP from 40 to 50HP
  • Dvar Foreman ‘Hand Mortar’ - Increased damage from 8 to 10
Kir’ko
  • Mod ‘Poison Excretion’ - The ‘On Death’ Explosion from now only affects enemies
Oathbound
  • Added seer scrolls visual to the Oathbound Hacker
  • Oathbound Aspirant - Reduced HP from 45 to 40HP
  • Oathbound Protector ‘Embolden’ - No longer puts the unit into Defense Mode after use
  • Oathbound Protector - Changed Prime Rank bonus from Firm to Shrug Off
  • Oathbound Warden - Increased shields from 0 to 1
  • Oathbound Warden ‘Warden’s Banner’ - Increased Crit Chance from 10% to 20%
  • Oathbound Lightbringer - Increased shields from 0 to 1
  • Oathbound Exemplar - Increased armor from 4 to 5
  • Oathbound Exemplar ‘Storm Glaive’ - Reduced Damage from 16 to 14
  • Oathbound Exemplar ‘Onslaught’ - Reduced base damage so it’s still 30 with the fixed Glaive Mode bonus
  • Buff ‘Precognition’ - No longer stacks.
  • Buff ‘Providence’ - The critical chance bonus is now properly capped and can no longer exceed the hit chance of the attack
  • Debuff ‘Fatalism’ - No longer guarantees success for instant kill operations and abilities
  • Mod ‘Oath of Loyalty’ - Now has a limit of +2 armor from adjacent units
  • Mod ‘Destiny’s Manuscript’ - Reduced radius from 5 hexes to 3 hexes
  • Mod ‘Destiny’s Manuscript’ - Will now apply either Fatalism or Adversity
  • Mod ‘Beacon of Hope’ - Reduced radius from 3 hexes to 2 hexes
  • Mod ‘Beacon of Hope’ - No longer stacks with itself.
  • Strategic Operation ‘Expedite Doom’ - Reduced Strength Chance to instantly kill from 12 to 8
  • Strategic Operation ‘Expedite Doom’ - Can now only instantly kill tier 1-3 units.
  • Hero Skill ‘Oracle's Favor’ no longer gives a stack of Precognition to their army at the start of battle, and instead gives Precognition after they kill an enemy unit and costs 2 points.
  • Hero Skill ‘Overload Power Core’ - Now properly gets damage bonuses from mods and hero skills
  • Hero Skill ‘Overload Power Core’ - Now does Massive Impact
  • Hero Vehicle ‘Protector’ - Increased armor from +2 to +3
  • Hero Vehicle ‘Warden’ - Increased armor from +0 to +1
  • Hero Vehicle ‘Light Bringer’ - Increased shields from +0 to +1
  • Hero Vehicle ‘Champion’ - Increased armor from +0 to +2
  • Hero Vehicle ‘Purifier’ - Changed from +1 shield to +3 armor
  • Hero Vehicle ‘Marquis’ - Reduced armor from +3 to +2
Shakarn
  • Shakarn colonists working in Infiltrator slots from the “Holo-Simulation Camp” structures now give research and production instead of research and covert operation strength. That amount of production is in line with what other racial slots would give.
  • Shakarn Deadeye ‘Omni-Penatrator’ - Now starts getting long range penalties at 7 hexes (was 5)
  • Shakarn Glaukos ‘Flow’ - Increased range from 5 to 7
Syndicate
  • Syndicate Subjugator - Now has Impose Discipline
  • Syndicate Subjugator ‘Heavy Repeater’ - Increased damage from 11 to 12
  • Syndicate Subjugator ‘Project Agony Field’ - Changed from Strength 8 Chance to apply Broken Mind to a Strength 8 Chance to apply Immobilize, with Slow on resist
  • Syndicate Subjugator ‘Project Agony Field’ - Reduced cooldown from 2 turns to 1 turn
Celestian
  • Lightbringer ‘Inferno Strike’ - Now counts as a Claw attack for modding purposes
Heritor
  • Mod ‘Es’Teq Gauntlet’ - Reduced damage per charge from 8 to 4. The ability now correctly counts the first charge, so the total damage done is the same for a 2 essence charge unit.
  • Mod ‘Es’Teq Conduit’ - Increased damage of Essence Blast from 8 to 10
  • Mod ‘Es’Teq Conduit’ - Reduced damage per charge from +5 to +3
  • Mod ‘Empowered Drained’ - Now gives Resurgence instead of a damage bonus
  • Doctrine ‘Divine Legion’ - Reduced the additional essence charges from +2 to +1
Psynumbra
  • Tactical Operation ‘Aria of Emptiness’ - Reduced Strength Chance to apply Catatonic from 8 to 6
Synthesis
  • The Shakarn and Assembly hackers now have the Haywire Daemon ability
  • Avatar ‘Disruption Virus’ - No longer suffers long range penalties
Void Tech
  • Echo Walkers now cost 70 energy, 250 production (was 90/270), except for the Oathbound, Dvar and Amazon ones
  • Echo Walkers - Reduced shields from 2 to 1
  • Phase Manipulator ‘Energy Blaster’ - Reduced damage from 11 to 9
Xenoplague
  • Plague Lord ‘Super Infection’ - Changed from Once per Battle to a 2 turn cooldown
Arc Weapon Tech
  • Mod ‘Positronic Arc Storm Projector’ - No longer applies Stun
Entropy Weapon Tech
  • Mod ‘Maxwell's Puzzle Box’ - Changed from a 4 Hex Cone to a 1 Hex Radius at Range 9
  • Mod ‘Maxwell's Puzzle Box’ - Reduced Strength Chance to proc Reality Break from 12 to 10
  • Mod ‘Maxwell's Puzzle Box’ - Increased chances to apply a random debuff from 1 to 2
  • Mod ‘Maxwell's Puzzle Box’ - Increased cooldown from 1 to 2 turns
  • Tactical Operation ‘Atomic Collapse’ - Can no longer affect enemy commanders
Laser Weapon Tech
  • Mod ‘Laser Precision Module’ - Increased the gained damage from +20% to +30%
Autonom
  • Killing a unit that is giving Networked to its allies now has a chance to stun or stagger those units as Networked is removed
  • Autonom Monitor ‘Transmit Repair Nanites’ - Heal changed from 5HP per level of Networked to 10HP Total
  • Autonom Monitor ‘Defense Laser’ - Increased range from 7 to 9
  • Autonom Monitor ‘Defense Laser’ - Reduced damage from 8 to 6
  • Autonom Monitor - Changed Prime Rank bonus from Extra Range to Bypass Cover
  • Buff ‘Networked Level 3’ - No longer gives +1 range
The Forgotten
  • Forgotten Serpion - Increased shields from 0 to 1
  • Forgotten Serpion ‘Essence Fangs’ - Increased Strength Chance to Drain Essence from 4 to 8
  • Shattered Ark - Increased shields from 1 to 2
  • Shattered Ark ‘Shattered Communion’ - Increased Strength Chance to apply Corrupt Communion from 8 to 12
  • Shattered Ark ‘Essence Channeler’ - Reduced shields cap from +3 to +2
Wildlife
  • Savage Tyrannodon ‘Brutal Bite’ - Now has Massive Impact
Hero Items
  • Staff of Turmoil is now a Tier 4 weapon
Fixes
General
  • Fixed issue where the “Now you see me” and “Critical Failure” achievements could be triggered by AI players.
  • Fixed “Make your own luck” achievement not triggering.
  • Fixed an issue where razing Imperial Defense would result in a AI hang for marauder units
  • Fixed crash where the alliances would be modified the list of allies while it was processing the list
  • Fixed issue where changing the side of a colony would not always update the city base connections
  • Fixed issue where founding a colony on a forward base would not cause the race relation to gain the “Owns Colony” modifier.
  • Fixed an issue that meant units with -200 morale would have a 50% chance to desert instead of a 5% chance.
  • Fixed issue where grail sites would invalidate certain sectors when spawning
  • Fixed issues regarding losing colonies and recapturing them turing certain connected sectors to state that they are disconnected
  • Changed the Secondary Structure Pick List for the Spaceport from Government Palace to Spaceport
  • Fixed an issue where global doomsday operations wouldn’t be canceled if a city containing a doomsday tower was razed
Interface
  • Fixed issue where the Unit Template Manager would visually not properly refresh when scrolling the list after toggling the production state of one or more templates.
  • Fixed the issue where the food sharing would reset back to default when on share all after the number of colonists slots
  • Fixed a missing screen name for the Sun Shard unit property which resulted in the effect not functioning correctly
  • Fixed Priority management for unique specialists on Controller
  • Fixed Filter Settings for Various Doctrines & Operations
  • Changed the linked icon for the Sun Shard & Marine Research Lab on the Military Overview
  • Fixed a recieve/receive spelling mistake in Happiness Events
Campaign
  • Fixed a rare bug, where the “Zemestian-4” mission would crash if Mephilas the Redeemer was in a vehicle by the end of the previous “Chimera Glacialis” mission.
  • Fixed an issue that the Oathbound Exemplar rewarded by the “Claim the Grail” quest in the second Oathbound mission was in Glaive mode rather than Shield mode.
  • Fixed an issue where scripts in campaign could sometimes cause defeated players to declare war or change their diplomatic state towards other players.
  • Fixed an issue where the player could get negative popular support from a scripted war in the second Oathbound campaign mission.
  • Fixed a translation mistake in Polish in the Grail choice menu. “Reject Oracle…” is now “Embrace Oracle…” in Polish.
Galactic Empire
  • Fixed issue where several filters were not being shown for the Title screen Imperial Archives and in the Galactic Empire Requisition screen.
  • Fixed issue where the “Grail Detected” planet trait would now show up in blue colored text with the relic icon when for active or available planets.
  • Fixed a broken link in the Chaos Oracle Relic
  • Fixed certain Item and Vehicle Unlocks being unavailable if you are playing as the secret tech that unlocks them.
  • Fixed the Heritor 'High Lord' T4 unit being unlocked at level 10, fixed to the correct level 20.
  • Fixed Cleansing pulse is now correctly marked as a tactical operation (and thus free with the Operational Stockpile trait.)
  • Fixed certain Heritor strategic and tactical operations lacking the proper requisites to be identified as such
Invasion
  • Fixed issue where pressing Y/Triangle on controller when starting a new planet while the galactic empire hall of heroes is already completely filled would still enter the recruit new hero screen (with no available heroes) even though there was no button prompt visible.
  • Fixed issue where invasion structure could spawn on Lava and Void sectors
Units & Mod
  • Sunbringer Anomalous Site Weapon now correctly has Melee Shield Bypass.
Dvar
  • Fixed the Hardiness Training skill so it always gives it's bonus (a bug meant it only gave the bonus to units in cover)
Oathbound
  • Fixed an issue that meant the Diviner’s Not Your Time could only target ground units
  • Fixed the Diviner’s Thread hero weapon not being compatible with Entropy Mods
  • Fixed a bug that means Oathbound Secret Tech hero vehicles would not be available to be bought after a reload
  • Fixed Oathbound Purifier Units being unable to equip Melee Mods
  • Fixed Glaive mode not giving the 25% bonus damage it should
  • Exemplar’s Blitz is now correctly marked as an arc attack and is affected by arc mods.
Shakarn
  • Fixed Infiltrators still using Holoshift in autocombat when they shouldn’t
Synthesis
  • Fixed an issue where Arc Weapon mods could affect the Amplify Daemon ability
Void Tech
  • Fixed Statis Pocket Inducer displaying the incorrect Strength Chances
Paragon
  • The Paragon Guard’s Shield Charge can no longer knock back light turrets
Psifish
  • Fixed the Siren’s impregnate not working on Heavy Infantry
You guys still don't allow DNA injectors. Are you purposefully blocking my favorite playstyle?
 
  • Mod ‘Empowered Drained’ - Now gives Resurgence instead of a damage bonus

Heu... There is already a doctrin to do that. When you play drained, you always play with this doctrin, it is a mandatory. So this mod becoming nearly useless. Both concerned the drained so there is a missmatch. There is only 2 specific elements for drained and both apply resurgence ? ... :confused:
 
  • Mod ‘Empowered Drained’ - Now gives Resurgence instead of a damage bonus

Heu... There is already a doctrin to do that. When you play drained, you always play with this doctrin, it is a mandatory. So this mod becoming nearly useless. Both concerned the drained so there is a missmatch. There is only 2 specific elements for drained and both apply resurgence ? ... :confused:
Doctrines have limited slots
Modules have limited slots
So for both, there should be better entries here.
They are also markedly different in their secondary buffs. The Mod buffs offense (by buffing Mind Control), while the Doctrine buffs defense (Shields + extra essence charges).

I do not like Resurgence, because it seems to basically "aim for failure".
I prefer keeping units alive to begin with, rather then resurging.
Unless it is like a suicide unit or something really expensive, I usually try to avoid it.
 
Yes but this doesn't solve the problem. There is always 2 entries useless : p (if I follow your logic)
In fact, the devs try to nerf the drained... but they created a duplicate.

And I doesn't agree with you. Resurgence is extremely powerful with a hord of drained because if 3 or 4 died in the process, they return. The strategy is here : not to worry to losing unity.

So the problem is not really resurgence, but remove an option for a duplicate option for two elements dedicated to the drained.
 
well, the problem with drained is, that they are true suicide units at some points, completely being destroyed even if they have resurgence when they mindcontrol a unit...
Having two possibilities to grant resurgence to a unit that has an ability that cicumvences resurgence seems ... odd
 
well, the problem with drained is, that they are true suicide units at some points, completely being destroyed even if they have resurgence when they mindcontrol a unit...
Having two possibilities to grant resurgence to a unit that has an ability that cicumvences resurgence seems ... odd
The Goal of the Drained is to become a T2 (T3 with the offensive upgrade) Unit. It is a permanent Mind Control effect that can be shot before it hits you. With any Mind Control lasting longer then "till end of battle" being exceptionally rare.
Resurgence is only there to carry it to that point, when it becomes infinitely more usefull then any T1 Unit with any Upgrade.
 
eh, dunno. Throwing away a very high mod to mindcontrol a higher tier can be useful, but can be pretty useless, too. And I love some T1 units far into the lategame (well, mainly one. The one being Indentured. I love Indentureds)
 
eh, dunno. Throwing away a very high mod to mindcontrol a higher tier can be useful, but can be pretty useless, too. And I love some T1 units far into the lategame (well, mainly one. The one being Indentured. I love Indentureds)
While you can mod lower Tier units to be efficient against T3, it is still better to apply mods to higher Tier Units.
Simply put, a lower Tier unit has a much higher chance of dying (even given the same upgrades) at wich point all the Cosmite invested into their mods would be lost.
With a T2 or T3 unit, that risk is a lot lower.
 
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Yes, but producing the T3+ already costs cosmite as well. While you 'circumvent' that with posession, you still use the mods on the drained, which, depending on setup, can even surpass the production cost for a T3 unit.
Though I gotta admit, I mainly field T2 units. Hidden, Overseer+Indentures, Resassembler, .... They are good enough for my purposes most of the times (though Hidden tend to be on the lower spectrum).
Anyway, my point is, that two sources of Resurgance for a suicide unit that only needs resurgance until it found a worthy target, seems redundant. Especially because the mod needs quite the investment, regarding time and cosmite, to make use of it. I just feel unsatisfied. It seems a waste to me. Something that does not fit. It goes against my aestethics maybe?
 
Yes, but producing the T3+ already costs cosmite as well. While you 'circumvent' that with posession, you still use the mods on the drained, which, depending on setup, can even surpass the production cost for a T3 unit.
Though I gotta admit, I mainly field T2 units. Hidden, Overseer+Indentures, Resassembler, .... They are good enough for my purposes most of the times (though Hidden tend to be on the lower spectrum).
Anyway, my point is, that two sources of Resurgance for a suicide unit that only needs resurgance until it found a worthy target, seems redundant. Especially because the mod needs quite the investment, regarding time and cosmite, to make use of it. I just feel unsatisfied. It seems a waste to me. Something that does not fit. It goes against my aestethics maybe?
Early game you don't have the doctrine so you use the mod to make sure your drained don't die. Your drained reach elite status and now you are looking for a good unit to mind control (tier 3 unit with 3 tier 2-3 mods). Meanwhile you create more drained, but after activating the doctrine you don't need to equip them with that mod before they reach elite status (and you have so many drained that you can't equip them all with mods anyway). I don't see any problems here, both mod and doctrine are useful and stay useful all game.
 
Regarding tier 3 units costing cosmite, typically tier 3 units are still more cost-efficient. Let's compare tier 2 skirmisher unit like electrocutioner with tier 3 elite unit which has repeatable same range attack like disassembler (disassembler has 20% higher attack, but let's ignore it for now). Max XP electrocutioner has 69 HP and 2 defense, max XP disassembler has 92 HP and 4 defenses. If you use mods to give the electrocutioner 2 defense and 23 HP, you will need 24-31 cosmite and 2 mod slots (tier 1-2 mods for 2 defense cost 6-12 cosmite, tier 3 for 23 HP costs 19 cosmite) while disassembler costs just 20 cosmite. And now you still have 3 empty mod slots on the disassembler, mods cost the same amount of cosmite for both tier 2 and tier 3 units.