Cleared dev text fixes, added minor AI tweaks (Archai).

Main thing?

Caitiffs food/energy cost reduced (tier 7 cost factor 33% > 25%). And Chosen of Throkos food/mineral cost likewise (tier 7 cost factor 50% > 33%). No change to algae costs.

After playing Count a lot, it becomes apparent Caitiffs are pretty overpriced. One thing nobody talks about (or seems to notice) is Voice is the only affinity with huge energy sinks. Humans only got Combat Medic. Cyber only got Hashmalim. Meanwhile, Voice has to juggle between Caitiffs, C'rlas, Hunters and the Orolos twins.

So yeah, Caitiffs were too costly.

And Chosen of Throkos, while less noticeable (it's only minerals, which Voice doesn't care about), wasn't falling too far behind. Didn't seem to take into account all 4 pre-DLC Canticle units (excl. Leviathan) got costs reduced by 25% back in patch 1.1.

Anyway, both units feel more correctly priced now.

PS: Have considered buffing See As I See to -4/8 morale (from -3/6)

✅ Discord Link Here ↗[discord.com]
📑 QoL Google Spreadsheet ↗[docs.google.com]

Removed all changes/fixes implemented by patch 1.2.13. Of note, Mobile Hardpoints becoming a Human exclusive tech (like its Voice/Cyber counterparts) as well as fixes/nerf to Anashim's Move Function. Most everything else is QoL/accessibility text fixes (although a couple were missing, so they remain in mod).

New stuff?

Fallen Orolos gaining passive HP regen. Flavor-wise? Giant cancerous growth.

I've tried *everything* with Orolos (including my everlasting patience). Absolutely nothing works (read: feels right). Yeah, its selling point is being the only "full range" Voice unit in the game. But unlike Vanquisher (sharing the same weapon profile), Orolos has to be constantly on the move (meaning: constantly at half accuracy). Whereas Vanquisher's 6 range can more reliably sit back and hit harder.

Pestilence is not the solution. Pestilence is fine. It's just Orolos also doesn't get any fancy upgrades to increase its survivability. Having 48 HP (and practically no armor) doesn't make a huge difference midgame. I mean, it's a T5 unit. Chosen of Throkos comes 1 tier earlier and offers a lot more utility.

And being "cheap" just doesn't cut it. Orolos costs energy too. Vanquisher only minerals.

So yeah, one of the things that kills Orolos is being so "squishy." So let it have a passive heal that isn't just a copy/paste of Regeneration (which doesn't make sense lore-wise, as it's a purely Acrin/Abkluth/Throkos trait). Is 4 HP a turn too much? Hardly. It allows Orolos to soak in overwatch and stay somewhat relevant.

Obviously, this is the "wildest" change this mod has implemented so far, and it's purely experimental.

~~~
PS: The other alternative was a separate ability to cast Blight on tiles for 3 turns (basically Orolos Cannon but on target tile). Easy to implement using a modified Nuclear Fallout feature. But it's too much of a gimmick and require a separate cannon animation (I tried).

~~~
Oh yeah, also a bunch more AI tweaks (particularly items). Also swapped all "non-Decaying" conditions for "non-Deforming" (base game still uses non-Decaying for Words of the Prophet, so mod keeps it only for Dream Prison for now).

~~~
Almost forgot, reverted Quantum Economics to "for each other" effect (will continue to look off on tooltip due to hidden negative 0.1 modifier, but oh well).

~~~
And Trauma Kit. Why? Because Stolen Flesh exists. And that's 20 HP total over 10 turns (whereas Trauma Kit was only 6 HP *every* 10 turns).

~~~
Next should be a pass to Operations and Hero abilities.

✅ Discord Link Here ↗[discord.com]
📑 QoL Google Spreadsheet ↗[docs.google.com]

Quite a few things.

📌First things off. Hobbled & Crippled reverted back to pre-patch 1.2.12. Dunno why devs keep double-guessing themselves here. When was the last time you saw a tank get "hobbled" by a billhook? Or a flying/hovering vehicle "crippled" by a knife?

What's next, tanks get "concussed" too?

(Look, I tend to stick to vanilla, and this might be no different. So let's see how it plays out.)

📌 (||) Next, Interpolated Production entirely reworked. It never worked as intended on release, so devs turned it into a -10% mineral discount trait for all non-large units for each Synthetic Printer in city. There were a number of issues with it (such as trait not retroactively applying to unproduced units, which was fairly harmless but still). And some units having the trait despite lacking a mineral cost (e.g. Caitiffs & Devotees of Throkos).

Long story short: it's implementation was admittedly inelegant. Like, if it's a trait for Synthetic Printer, why does it apply to units? And why does a Cyber tech apply to non-Cyber units? And I mean, it was just 2 Voice units total (Abkluths and Aegellyns).

So yeah, reworked it so now it increases production on Synthetic Printer (per each Printer) instead. Similar to Labor Union or Old Access Protocols.

Went with +0.25 p/building originally, but that seemed a bit "much" for a T1 tech. So settled for 0.20 for now.

📌 (Q) On a similar note, Quantum Economics. It was reworked in patch 1.2 (because it was really bad: being merely a 20% mineral/production cost reduction per additional Quantum Manipulator, hardcapping after just 5). So the change was great (to +0.2 singularity cores per each other QM in city). But then it got subsequently nerfed in patch 1.2.7 (from +0.2 to +0.1).

Catch was, it came with a hidden negative modifier of -0.1 in order to make it so bonus didn't apply to first QM (but rather to every QM after it). Main issue with this was the value displayed was always wrong (because of the hidden -0.1).

So now it now applies to "each" Quantum Manipulator (instead of "each other" after the first). This fixes the incorrect value while providing a tiny buff to counterbalance the nerf.

📌 Moving right along, Holopatter fixed. It had been broken since... forever? Now it works as intended: increasing accuracy in forests and ruins.

Also fixed tech description and trait tooltip being weird.

📌 Next, Mobile Hardpoints. Why does a Human tech apply to non-Human units? It is the equivalent if Surthodai's Kiss and Holopatter, which are correctly affinity-locked. Likewise, then, made MH a Human exclusive (as advertised on release on patch 1.1).

And also fixed tech description to read "for non-flying units" (which was entirely missing).

📌 Alongside these changes, AI no longer researches Surthodai's Kiss unless they are Voice, no Holopatter unless they are Cyber, and no Mobile Hardpoints unless they are Human. When these techs got changed form "every affinity" to affinity-exclusive, the AI scores were left unchanged.

📌 And last but not least, Tribunal woes have been heard. Comprador Science, Scimystic Scismatics and Eremite Cells. After patch 1.2, every economy building tech received significant buffs. Tribunal was seemingly forgotten. And unlike Treasures of Life (Aristocrat) and Amniotic Seal (Mother), Tribunal was the only leader with comparatively "weak" economic techs.

📌 Almost forgot, reverted Antimatter Dilation cooldown. As usual, I'll stick to vanilla if I can help it. Don't like how OP Cherubim is, but whatevs. Tech should prolly come 1 tier later (as most techs do) instead of on the same tier as unit. Unsure if dev oversight or... it's just there to keep every tier with an equal number of Voice/Cyber upgrades.

📌 Oh, and Holo Decoy missing Relics of Eld (Romantic) upgrade.

📌 And half a dozen more AI tweaks.

✅ Discord Link Here ↗[discord.com]

PS: Will see how Tribunal plays out now, and revert/tone down as needed. (And yes, The Outsider being permanent but limited to 1 charge per summon is easy enough to implement thanks to Scion's T10, but don't wanna go there just yet). Fallen Orolos still in mind, though (but nothing good outside of partially or wholly negating Heavy without making Pestilence entirely redundant--the "crazier" idea would be allowing Orolos to apply Blight on tiles, similar to Nuclear Fallout). As well as Caitiffs (which maybe could get resource cost toned down a notch).

Updated to 1.2.9 for Operation upkeep costs.

At first glance, some upkeeps may a bit out of tune. Assuming they are supposed to follow a pattern, that is (e.g. unit upkeep costs being 5% of base cost). Black Hole, for example, having the same upkeep as Nuke despite being double the antimatter cost. Tactical Insertion having no food upkeep. And Vorodai's Bargain lacking upkeep altogether.

But it's been reported and devs should promptly address that.

✅ Discord Link Here ↗[discord.com]

PS: Also, figured it might be a good time to get rid of ActionTypeManager.xml. All it's been used for so far is overriding Nuke/Hole's targeting of only non-allied adjacent units (i.e. treating allies as "casualty" in order to hit enemies). Nobody seems to actually care much about it anyway.

Removed fixes/tweaks to The Sure Thing upgrades, etc. (already addressed by devs).

Reverted Dark Caress from stacking to current +2 HP heal. Kinda sad to let it go, but wanna stick to vanilla if I can help it. Still wanna keep an eye on Surthodai's Embrace and Fallen Orolos as they aren't super up to par to adjacent DLC units like Amoetia's Devourer and Chosen of Throkos. We'll see...

Foundation of Blood may have been a bit overnerfed (from max +67% production max to +41.6%) way back in patch 1.0.14. So right now it maxes out at a more reasonable 50% instead. Merely an ~8.33% increase.

Count may be having a bit of a hard time early on. Perfect Forever costing less (i.e. like a standard 40-cost player action) should help some.

Oh, and renamed Sluggish Aim to Shaky Arm to better convey an "attacks" rather than "accuracy" penalty.

✅ Discord Link Here ↗[discord.com]

~~~
PS: Almost brought back Icarus Satellite having Crippled. But again, it's not inherently "bad" in vanilla.

PPS: There's still Clone Wave. 20 pop growth every 2-3 turns is crazy good. Base growth could easily be dropped to 10 (so it becomes Meat Harvest with upgrade, but no more). Wanna wait on devs on that. I'd rather avoid nerfs.

Removed all changes devs already implemented: Hobbled, Anashim, Clone Wave, Safety Disjunction.

Aaand removed The Sure Thing (for now). Devs just patched it, and it's likely to be patched again. I could tweak it a bit, but rather wait. The short of it is: TST's upgrades have a compounding effect. That is, TST adds a flat value and *then* player's total mineral count is multiplied by +2.2% with each upgrade (used to be a whooping +20%, explaining why it added up so crazily high).

Problem now is base revenue on each TST is worse, so not worth it without (a) upgrades and (b) high base mineral count. It's the upgrades that make the biggest difference.

e.g. on 1000 minerals, running TST (Short) nets you ~90 for the cost of 40.

So yeah, it's broken.

~~~
As a final note, opted to leave Dark Caress as a stacking buff for now (so 1 HP heal). But updated to patch 1.2.7 (all allies, rather than only biological). Might fully revert it to vanilla later, we'll see...

Oh, and a bunch of AI tweaks to improve several more abilities!

✅ Discord Link Here ↗[discord.com]

~~~
PS: The only other outstanding issue with DLC2 is Tactical Insertion. But this is likely going to be patched up sooner or later. Either not deployable in cities, consume move/action, or (far less boring and far more flavorful) deployable only in forests and ruins (and smoke?).

Also, Ops having an upkeep to resolve all the crazy Nuke/Hole stockpiling too.

First off, reverted Sniper Rifle + AP Rounds back to vanilla. Tried keeping Heavy while giving it Ignores Cover, or even giving Sharpshooters Agile or a new "Camo" trait (cover dmg reduction). Nothing feels right. Wish devs would've kept Sharpies as they originally envisioned. Makes no sense for Missile Teams to have these cute little toy robots being "Heavy" while Sharpies got big-ass chunky rifles and they are now considered "light." But whatevs.

Secondly, and not least importantly, reverted Words of the Prophet to its original cost. That was a huge oversight on my part! Prophet is crazy good as-is with current tweaks.

Thirdly, went back to The Outsider and dropped cost to 40 again (yes, again). Minor buff to keep Tribunal afloat. (Plus, no other Elite costs more than 40.)

Lastly, updated Seed of Extinction to 2 attacks (instead of 12 accuracy to match Hole/Nuke). This is the same result, only better VS infantry due to Massive Splash. This gives Voice a needed buff while keeping Seed distinct from its sibling Ops.

~~~
(⇓) Oh yeah, almost forgot. Changed Clone Wave from reduced op growth to increased production/chip cost (1 tier). Honestly could cost more (with energy on top), but we'll keep it tame for now.

✅ Discord Link Here ↗[discord.com]

Quick update.

Reverted Surthodai's 4 movement. It sorta fits (so many crawly legs), but it changes things too much. If devs make it official, all good. But don't wanna displace Throkos' role as the faster (tunneling) transport. Besides, already gave Surthodai's stacking Dark Caress and twice as strong Abyssal Rage.

Next...

(⇓) Clone Wave nerfed to +10 pop growth (so +15 instead of +20 w/upgrade). Although production cost could've been increased by a tier instead, from 24 (4 turns) to 36 (6 turns). If not that, an added cost of at least 10 energy (or 10 research).

Whatever the official nerf ends up being, will switch to that.

Next...

The Orolos Concundrum

Here we go again. Wait- Whyyy? Because Throkos.

See, Throkos comes 1 tier earlier and... it's just so freaking good (4 movement, Stone Crawl, transport). Not even a couple water tiles can stop Throkos. Sure, it costs more (which makes it even weirder to come sooner than Orolos; but whatevs, DLC must adhere to its own internal logic).

My mind keeps going back to beta times (pre-patch 0.8.4) when Orolos had 4 accuracy, and Orolos Cannon was 2 attacks, 12 dmg, 7 armor (basically 1 tier lower than now).

But it changes things. By which I mean: Orolos becomes too decent VS infantry. And it kinda makes Pestilence practically redundant.

Long story short? Blighted deals 4 dmg now. Easy. Simple.

Yeah, it kinda-sorta (indirectly) buffs Epicureans a teeny-tiny bit. But they are so massively overpowered that its negligible on them. That was the original reason I revered it a year ago. It's fine now. There's DLC competition. And this change is small enough as to not be massively game-changing.

✅ Discord Link Here ↗[discord.com]

(I'm still holding on more drastic nerfs/fixes, namely Anashim being able to change Functions after moving. I wanna stick to my "no nerfs" rule, but I'm already starting to break it in the name of balance. Just waiting on Proxy to relieve me of this burden here.)

Other things under consideration:

✍ The Outsider (Tribunal) influence cost 60 > 40
✍ Perfect Forever (Count) influence cost 60 > 40
✍ Survival Training (Soldier) as a free action (no more cooldown)?
✍ Augments (Rogue Op) removable/replaceable by other Augments?
✍ Mother's Favor: NERF pls (lower invul dmg reduction, attacks, anything, something!)

Reverted Wrath of the Leviathan for now (rather not mess with weapon stats if I can help it).

Left Vorodai's at 4 movement, however. And added Surthodai's to the mix. Mobility is a big part of the reason they both lag behind. They are both melee, and they aren't particularly good at it. And they are both transports (and they got those long limbs, legs, hands, fingers... appendages?).

And Surthodai's needs to somehow stay relevant with Amoetia's Devourer and now Chosen of Throkos around. Likely to be reverted next update. Just testing it out for now. (Don't wanna displace Devourer or Throkos.)

Lastly, the first real (minor) nerf: Antimatter Dilation's cooldown.

(⌘) Cherubim is already incredibly overpowered, capable of single-handedly razing a city in a couple of turns. No other titan comes even close. And Antimatter Dilation is just obscene. Making it just slightly less abusable seems like a step in the right direction.

And now, the biggie...

Technically also a nerf, but: The Sure Thing

($) It now comes with an opportunity cost early on so it doesn't become a no-brainer to pick (Large) option right from the get-go. (Small) is unchanged, but (Medium) has a small influence cost, and (Large) is double that. It allows players to engage in more interesting choices.

In the long run, players will end up exploiting (Large) all the same and never look back again.

And honestly, Scion is so crazy broken he can shrug off this minor change ;)

✅ Discord Link Here ↗[discord.com]

PS: Also fixed Hobbled applying to everything from tanks to freaking titans when it should've been non-titan biological units only. Opted to *not* include a fix for Anashims changing Function after moving yet (leading to all sorts of "cheaty" exploits). Same for Clone Wave needing a nerf. Wanna allow devs the chance.

Removed dev fixes so far (Husband's Pathfinder Drone, etc).

Reverted Survival Training to base influence cost (see last Change Note), and instead increased XP gain. Doesn't feel as spammable now while still remaining "competitive" with PFC. Is change completely warranted? Debetable. But PFC is still the "cheaper" XP option for heroes.

(‡) The biggest changes, though, pertain to Crodeus and Leviathan. All still subject to change (reversal back to vanilla), of course. But Swallow allows Crodeus to munch another unit 1 turn sooner, and Seed of Extinction feel potentially more rewarding now. Leviathan, being a purely melee unit (that yes, is meant to be pumped up by Unholy Haste and/or Atramentous Aura) seriously struggles to get in range of enemies. Having move 4 makes up for it.

Wrath of the Leviathan is not something I'm happy about (don't like changing weapon stats), but it's likely temporary. For comparison, Wrath was the same as Devouring Maw (Acrin Titan) with Large instead Massive Splash, and Cone. It looks nice nice on paper, but it doesn't kill much by itself.

Simply brought up a tier, on par with Cherubim's Tachyon Cannon now (except Cherubim also got an infantry-obliterating Tachyon Laser Array to go with it, so not exactly apples to apples).

Withering Breath remains better VS infantry, so no conflict of interest there.

Will test it out and, again, likely revert next update.

As for AI tweaks (a huge undertaking)? Updated Soundquake to exclude a couple more low-priority targets. Also improved Repair on Engies so they don't get stuck in a self-Repair cycle.

Finally, removed River & Road terrain texture changes as they hardly made any difference at all.

✅ Discord Link Here ↗[discord.com]

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DLC2 Early Feedback (The Sure Thing?)

❓Should Hobbled apply to non-biological units? Large units? Titans? Because it does, to everything. Even fortifications.
❓Should Anashim be able to switch Function after moving? They are already crazy OP as-is. Looks like an oversight.
❓Wouldn't Sluggish Aim make more sense as an accuracy (rather than attack) debuff? Leave -17% or adjust as needed.
❓Why did Crush Sequence lose the non-titan exclusion? Genuinely curious, can't find any discussions.
❓Perfect Forever shouldn't be able to target Caitiffs. Or the HQ, for that matter. Who would, right?
❓Chosen of Throkos might be a bit on the weak side? Dunno. Don't wanna call it prematurely, we'll see...
❓Clone Wave needs a serious looksie. It's Meat Harvest on steroids for dirt cheap. At minimum reduce base pop growth from 15 to 10.
❓Ranger Frag/AP Grenades are kinda... useless? There's practically no scenario where they would stand out. Might as well lose them (they don't lose anything, really). Rangers are already a bit too good anyway.
❓Is there any reason to ever pick anything but The Sure Thing (Large)? Nope. There's no opportunity cost to it. Once you're at 80 minerals, you're printing "free money." I'd propose a slight rework. The easiest would be adding an influence cost: 0 to Small, 20 to Medium, 40 to Large. (And still cheaper than buying minerals from Concordat, even at a 50% discount.)

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PS: Other changes have been reported and Proxy will address them, so didn't include here. Namely, Time Out of Joint and Product Recall missing "cost scales with the strength of the target unit" (see Words of the Prophet), as well as Product Recall also failing to mention it cannot target units after moving (which might be a bug?).

Also Planar Phlebotomizer which shouldn't be able to target Forests for both thematic and mechanic consistency with Conjure Bleed and Bleed Cultivation, and the fact Bleed does not naturally spawn in Forests (only Ruins). Same for Caches, which currently Phlebotomizer cannot target but should.

And minor things like Engies building Roads on Volcano, Gourmand's Fate missing upgrade icon (as Family's Favor before it), etc.

Oh, and Outposts remaining under control of defeated players.