Cruiser Command

I wanted to get 1.8 out with the bugs and balance fixes out of the way before I announced this big patch that I've been working hard on for the last month. You might've guessed some of the things on here. For example, the weapons console AI kind of hinted on the addition of more roles and improved AI. The boarding has been long overdue and I'm guessing most of you assumed it was coming any day now. There's also a lot of other features requested by the community.

v2.0:
- Decreased the penta burst cooldown from 1.5s to 1.25s
- Battlecruisers have been upgraded with state-of-the-art thrusters which allow them to fly as they were meant to be flown.
- A stalemate detection has been added. If the game continues after 30 minutes, a zerg leviathan will appear and crush everything in its path.
- Boarding has now been implemented. Construct an infiltrator ship in the hangar and use it to board the enemy battlecruiser.
- Added new AI tasks: Wraith piloting, navigation and upgrading(you can pick different three different strategies: Rush, balanced or long-term)
- Improved the mining AI drastically.
- Reduced the tractor beam force down from 250 to 150.
- Chompers now have a grappling hook ability.
- Minelayers can now fire light missiles available from the construction console.
- Combined the nano-hull spray and the shield recharger into the same ability and removed the required upgrade.
- Added a silver armada upgrade to the Battlecruiser.
- Fixed an issue which would cause players with over 300 rep to win more frequently than others.
- Hull upgrades no longer affect the Wraith to keep it as a small and fast attack ship.

Use this thread to discuss the new patch.

Yea, boarding is nice I just boarded the zerg leviathan, you and Geoff did an awesome job there!
The thrusters are nice and shiny too, I'm thinking about switching from power to nav console now, this really demands some pro skills!

Teams when you board and the Leviathan consoles are still bugged though, you can just switch your whole team over to the Leviathan and kill the enemy BC from there. It's definitely op.

I'll try a 1vs6 just with drones now, they seem to be really good at their new jobs.

holy shit boarding was released and im not able to play it, this patch looks awesome. Cant believe you added the grappling hook to the chompers xD i have a fear that with their new mobility and ability to fight back small ships wont stand a chance unless its a destroyer. i also firmly believe that wraiths were already squishy enough being 100 hull less than any other small ship. if anything we might want to consider reducing their hull upgrade rate rather than eliminating it all together. Even as a pretty decent wraith pilot you'll die easilly even with the hull upgrades as they were 50 per upgrade. If they are gonna be so easilly disposable they need to have a lower emergency construction refresh rate, furthermore their damage upgrade should be made cheaper. make them into fast mobile glass cannons. A good Cruiser command game lasts a little longer than 30 minutes id think also, depending on how these changes have effected ending the game id assume the time limit for elimination should be increased to about 45 minutes.

I have yet to test this, but I do have some theories on what I'll find.

-Wraith becomes obsolete; miners with even a few hull upgrades should ram/turbo them to death with their higher speed/hp. No contest.
- Leviathan will spawn in more games than not. 30 minutes, even with a good chomper out there eating fields at rapid speed, barely gives times to fully develop BC upgrades. This was once not the case, but added features make for a rather complex set of strategies. Alternatively, people could start ignoring all the small ship upgrades and return to broadside rushing. With boarding added, fast games could be on the rise again.
- People with 300+ rep. will probably keep winning more frequently than those below that level. Simply put, we've been around longer and tend to have a comfortable feel for the game. That said, there are a whole string of players between 60 and 300 rep who are simply awesome. Always a pleasure to game with smart people.


I'll post back after a few games.

BC flying backwards? I did not predict that lol...

erm, silver armada...not golden....pisses me off lol, jk i cant beleive you implemented that, that fast.
wraiths should have a hull upgrade of 25 because even slightly upgraded miners kill em, and they die in one hit later on.
leviathian spawns to early, make it 45 minuts.
penta burst...cool
Thrusters....didnt see that coming
new ai is pretty awesome. for ai
why just minelayers able to shoot missiles? we wanted to see corvettes as midium mid game ships as well
chomper with grappling, i was against it but its cool now
nano spray combined, excellent but i feel it should still be an upgrade (30B 30Y)

and btw, awesome patch...keep up the absoulutly amazing work!
(sure....)

i agree with glarion, the only thing making 300+ rep players win is the experience they have had with the map and utilizing and perfecting in game strategies. And everything else he said i had already mentioned cuz him and i think on the same wavelength. I am against taking hull away from the wraith, even if its 25 hull per upgrade they need more firepower to compensate. the wraith was good where it was at, not over powered. The corvette needed a hand but IMO Ionic is all a corvette needs to be sexy as hell. The wraith needs to either be left alone, or tweeked. for every lost hit point the wraith should put out more dps, so that ramming miners can die before killing the little guy.

Holy crap, amazing patch O_O

The minelayer stuff is definitely awesome, I def agree the minelayer was underused before, but now it's worth using. It takes a lot of skill to aim the missiles but you can really rack up kills now. The chomper is cool too, the grappling hook is just so much fun and definitely not overpowered, and interestingly enough the chomper can also chomp the leviathan if it gets close enough XD.

Wow what a perfect patch, i was so suprised i almost cried.

Tempest wrote:Wow what a perfect patch, i was so suprised i almost cried.

You really fell for that april's fools joke
Either that or you're really good at hiding and pretending, in which case I would be surprised and impressed.


So here's the deal what actually has been implemented:
Players who disconnect during loading screen actually leave a drone behind, which is broken unfortunately.
Penta burst CD reduce from 1.5 to 1.25.
That crappy reversed BC model that transforms its engines into a yamato-firing device. (Which should be removed rather soon, *cough cough*)
I'm not sure about the tractor beam change from 250 to 150, it should be implemented though.

Everything else on Siretu's list is part of the aprils fools joke. Rejoice!