Yep, Sharpshooters got back Heavy.

Wait- What? Why?

Because not having Heavy feels completely unthematic (they are literally carrying big-ass heavy rifles), and because this is how they were originally designed to be.

Yes, they sucked on release. Nobody's arguing that. So devs buffed their accuracy (patch 1.1.1). This felt like a cheap fix, to be honest (still feels weird that a T1 Human unit has more accuracy than, dunno, late-game Cyber infantry), but whatevs. Sharpies were still fairly bad. But then losing Heavy (patch 1.1.10) just... didn't seem right.

I've tried everything from flat-out number tweaks to giving them new traits (like ignoring partial cover or increasing sight/range based on terrain height). But I'm not here to completely reimagine the game.

And I always come back to "whatever's simple is best."

(§) Long story short:
✔️ The very specific "dmg buff" to Sniper Rifle and "armor pen buff" to Armor-Piercing Rounds (not the other way around, nor a mix of both) means an overall increase in upfront dmg even early, and an improved performance into the mid/late game without overshadowing Missile Teams (MTs remain as they were, it's just Sharpies fall less behind now).
✔️ The catch, of course: moving and losing half accuracy. Which is slightly mitigated by a slightly higher upfront dmg (as well as Commander's Aura of Discipline if available).
✔️ This was primarily tested against Assault Troopers (low HP, high armor) and Phenaris Epicureans (high HP, mid armor).

This is not final. Things can change. But for now, they just feel and play better.

✅ Discord Link Here ↗[discord.com]

Removed dev fixes: missing DLC leader likes/dislikes (patch 1.1.12).

✅ Discord Link Here ↗[discord.com]

Reverted Transubstantiation for no other reason than "no nerfs" policy (see footnote*).

What's new?

Reduced cost of Survival Training (Soldier) so it can be a bit more impactful. Survival Training was 72 exp w/upgrade (else 36) for 160 influence (over 4 turns), now 80 influence. This also counterbalances PFC being 45 exp for 160 influence (*) on a hero instantly.

Increased Asset Diversion (Data Hack) research copied % because upgrade was very underwhelming. Consider once you have vision of enemy HQ, it's often already getting assaulted (meaning it already starts producing less resources due to dmg).

Lastly, Hymn of Decay was overshadowed by Transubstantiation (being cheaper and far more game-changing). At least now HoD can help deal with Bunker/Engineer spam (Engineer will still outheal the damage, just less egregiously).

Also indirect (albeit very minor) buff to Furtive Tribunal via Masked Hymnal.

✅ Discord Link Here ↗[discord.com]

(*) Re: Transubstantiation. Biological units should get more exclusive stuff, mechanical units already got too much support with baseline Engineer which Voice faction has no synergy with.

(*) Market Defluctuation + Relics of Eld does make it 75% cheaper, though. Then again, Soldier does not get Eld, so that's just a 50% cut (160 > 80).

Reverted Blighted (avoid inadvertently buffing Paradox Theriac).

Toned down Soundquake damage.

✅ Discord Link Here ↗[discord.com]

PS: Forgot the Hexeskeltal Creche fix. It's been reported. Next time.

Removed all dev changes (notably Sniper Rifle/AP Rounds losing Heavy, System Reset fix to movement/action points, Warlord/Mother missing Untrustworthy, etc.). Immaculate Delivery cooldown is nice so I don't have to nerf it myself.

Next, reverted Icarus Satellite (removed Crippling, Leaden Rain back to +100% attacks). It's still overtuned, but whatevs. Let it hit like a truck.

And Buffed Abyssal Rage some more. This is so it can deal a bit better VS infantry and high-armor tanks.

(#) Also reverted Armor-Piercing Rounds cooldown to 5 to account (no longer being Heavy) but kept increased armor pen. Upgrade hardly made any difference. This helps Snipers scale into the mid-game a bit better (since everything will be 4+ armor).

What's new?

Blighted dmg increased a smidgen. Indirect buff to Fallen Orolos (having crap accuracy). I mean, shouldn't it hit harder than Poisoned? Yeah, now it does.

And for dessert, Soundquake. Mostly useless against anything that isn't Phenaris or Praetorians (or other Voice monsters). And the AI loves to spam it on Drones, FFS. So tried to fix all that. After all, description reads:

"Holy fuck! Of all the ways you can get pinned down, this one… this one hurt. So much. A giant fucking monster pointing a cannon at you and blasting you with noise so intense it makes gravity stronger. My ears started bleeding and my bones felt like they were going to break… but without a scratch on me. We were already retreating… why did it need to stop us like this?"

✅ Discord Link Here ↗[discord.com]

Minor cleanup from dev fixes (Internal Repair Station, etc.).

Also reverted Essence Syphon to 2 armor (1 turn). Opted for higher instant survivability over lesser but longer-lasting sustainability. As always, vanilla is the preferred outcome when able.

What's new?

Transubstantiation only to biological units. Why? It's on theme. But more importantly: Cyber/Human units got armor. And Engineers can heal Mechanical units. It's Voice that's in need of healing (high HP, low armor). Makes no sense to see an Akavish Provost heal 8 HP every turn.

Next, Systemic Reset. The gift that keeps on giving. It's been patched 3 times already (removing Shaken/Broken & Damaged, killing your own Summons, and permanently disabling passive Hero items).

But this is (hopefully?) the last one: when removing Stunned/Entombed, action/movement is now restored.

Lastly, the Sharpshooters conundrum. I tried it all (in various combinations):
❌ Ignores Cover, Crippling
❌ Range +1, Sight +1 (e.g. if unit remains stationary)
❌ (+8% cover dmg), +20% dmg to overwatch attacks
❌ (+8% cover dmg), +2 accuracy if unit remains stationary
❌ Sniper Rifle (AP Rounds) dmg 1.5 > 2 (2 > 3)
❌ Sniper Rifle (AP Rounds) armor pen 1 > 2 (2 > 3)
❌ Sniper Rifle (AP Rounds) lose Heavy
❌ Missile Bot damage 6 > 4, armor pen 5 > 4
❌ Missile Bot gain Indirect Fire (no overwach)
❌ Missile Teams increased cost/tier 5 > 6
❌ Hit & Run (because might as well)

I didn't like any of the above. It felt tacked on, didn't make any sense (e.g. Ignores Cover) and didn't even make a big difference (besides nerfing Missile Teams). Critically, Sharpshooters don't really benefit from more dmg (due to dmg cap on all infantry that isn't Phaneris, and even then Missile Teams fare better).

Problem is Missile Teams cost the same, deal more dmg VS everything (that isn't exclusively 0 armor chaff), and, more importantly: are Mechanical. And having Engineer support cannot be understated. Nerfing their dmg output also doesn't make sense (i.e. Missile Bot is the same weapon as Missile Launcher, used by Corsair/Headquarters, sans Heavy).

But even if Missile Teams cost more, they'd still be the most bang for your buck. Amusingly, they also suffer no penalty firing from range 1 (while Sharpshooters lose even more accuracy, which fits thematically but doesn't help one bit). Maybe Missile Bot should gain Indirect Fire, dunno.

If they had been called "Recon Teams" none of this may've been an issue? It's just they never get to *snipe* anything. Move? Lose 50% accuracy. Bump into enemy in forest? Lose another 50% accuracy...

Recon and Stealth isn't enough to sell them.

(#) So until devs address the issue more drastically (removing Heavy?), I've limited myself to merely increasing armor pen while also reducing Armor-Piercing Rounds cooldown to 3.

✅ Discord Link Here ↗[discord.com]

~~~
PS: Comparatively, Devotees of Throkos post-patch became great units even past the mid-game!

PPS: Turns out we're not done with Systemic Reset. I forgot Immobilized. And then Crippled
Interference Protocols, Atramentous Aura, Horde Mandate, aaaand Experimental Drugs. It's been reported. Devs should patch soon.

Cleanup time as devs have been painstakingly addressing all my quibbles! (KENAZ, ZEPHON Interference, Shamhurish Assistance, Road/River trait visibility. Swallowed effect. Sticky Foam accuracy. Scramblers having Parthian Equilibrium.)

What's new?

The only DLC unit that remains in need of some care was Sharpshooters. My initial idea was: increased overwatch damage (accuracy, better) and/or cover dmg reduction. But I rather let devs tackle that. For now, reduced cooldown to Armor-Piercing Rounds.

This helps them deal with armor a bit more reliably. Also? Set them apart from Missile Teams a bit better (Grounded Fire is 5 cooldown).

Lastly, tweaked Essence Syphoned duration again. Might revert this later.

✅ Discord Link Here ↗[discord.com]

~~~
PS: A note on Essence Syphoned. Since it was fixed, it now can stack from adjacent kills. It was a total possible +6 armor before (3 kills max). Vorodai's Leviathan caps at +4 armor (6 + 10 = 83% dmg reduction). And there are no weapons with armor pen higher than 10 (e.g. Singularity Blade). However, any excess armor *does* reduce dmg from such weapons (e.g. 12 armor = ~17%).

If I kept Essence Syphoned at 3 duration, this meant Vorodai could (theoretically) reach 15 armor provided it killed 3 units in 3 consecutive turns (a practical impossibility).

The realistic likelihood of stacking more than 3 Essences at a time (1 kill a turn) is near non-existent.

Despite all this, I opted to keep max (possible) armor at +6 for now.

Removed a couple minor dev fixes, nothing noteworthy.

More importantly, reverted Pestilence (Fallen Orolos) free action. Dev oversight. And Tactical Nuclear Missile clearing Ruins (I incorrectly assumed this was an oversight all along, but it was intended).

Now to start off, tweaked Precentor of Nihilus experience gain to +17% (same value it used to be when it was morale loss). 3 Midnight Choruses amount to +50% (basically Philosopher's Stone). NOTE: when city auras overlapped before (e.g. Nihilus) only the first city to build the building took precedence (even if effect was weaker). This was reported and fixed (beta patch 1.1.5).

Next, reverted Withering Breath (Vorodai's Leviathan) free action. NOTE: when killing adjacent units before (both Leviathan's weapons got the Cone trait) Essence Syphon didn't trigger. This was reported and fixed (beta patch 1.1.5).

Next, reverted The Outsider cost (yeah, Tribunal is an influence sink but--), instead gave it Stealth for 1 turn. Feels much better now.

Next, reverted Breeding Deformities (Shoch'itris Lair) costing HP and Deformities having infinite morale. It was experimental.

What's new?

Angel Flight (Seraphim Archangel) gained an additional move. Sorta compensates for Singularity Blade's range nerf and help with Holy Inferno positioning.

The rest are minor ability positioning swaps to preserve hotkeys (so an upgrade doesn't push an ability to the side).

✅ Discord Link Here ↗[discord.com]

PS: Why no permanent Dreameaters? Because it's called The Outsider, singular. The snowballing effect of permanent Dreameaters in the hands of a human player could be disastrous. 10 Dreameaters by turn 100. And the *dozens* of units they'd have Dream Prison'd. No, the only thematically-fitting alternative would be giving it a charge. That's 1 permanent Dreameater, which would be totally fine.

Would love that, but keeping changes "tame" for now.

Removed fixes Proxy already addressed (Wastelander missing Large, Interference Protocols missing Titan exclusion, couple items missing buffs, few minor spell checks).

What's new?

Precentor of Nihilus reverted to pre patch 1.1 but *reworked* from -17% morale loss to +20% experience gain p/Midnight Chorus. It was really bad before, but the 6 tile city aura was such a cool concept! It was sad to see devs get rid of it in favor of a flat +2 experience to produced unit (a copy of Antiphon at Daybreak, basically).

I opted to give it the best of both worlds: experience gain + 6 tile aura. This keeps it unique and distinct from Antiphon at Daybreak and In Life, Death.

Also, Family's Favor (Mother's Favor) missing icon, so gave it faction icon as placeholder which fits just fine.

Pending DLC quibbles:
🔹 Sharpshooters gain +8% cover dmg reduction and/or +10% dmg to overwatch attacks
🔸 Devotees of Throkos lower food cost and/or tweak to Mangle Chelae (armor pen?)
🔹 Scramblers having Parthian Equilibrium, was that even intended?
🔸 Transubstantiation only usable on biological units
🔹 Immaculate Transfer cooldown 0 > 2
🔸 System Reset shouldn't clear Shaken/Broken or Damaged

PS: Yeah, System Reset needs a few fixes. It even resets passive items permanently (requiring unequipping/reequipping item).

✅ Discord Link Here ↗[discord.com]

Tons of cleanup and a few fixes, nothing major. Needed to address all of this now that System Reset exists. The short of it is: green is for temporary (or conditional) buffs, red is for temporary debuffs, white is for permanent traits (with some exceptions like 1 turn Stealth on Aegyllan Worms).

Reverted the Terraform submenu for Engineers. The original change was to make building Roads less of a chore and prevent Bunker from pushing Terraform one slot the right. But now Wastelander came in. Best keep things forward compatible, I figured.

Easier instead to just have Terraform swap places with Bunker so the (F) hotkey is preserved throughout the game.

Lastly, Furtive Tribunal gets an additional Abkluths. Weakest leader, weakest starting units...

✅ Discord Link Here ↗[discord.com]