Version 9.0 Changelog

v9.0

Major Additions:

-Completely re-done salvage ability:
-Salvage can now be canceled
-Salvaging a factory/depot/science facility shows who salvaged it

-Added objectives: At the start of each Day and each Night, the game will give you a few objectives to guide you
-These objectives teach new players the basics of the game - using the shoot skill, salvaging buildings, etc.
-For advanced players, these objectives can be useful to see how many minerals you're harvesting every day.

-Adjusted difficulty; later waves should be less devastating, difficulty progression should be smoother, overall difficulty slightly lower

-Added selectable difficulties: Normal mode is the mode you're used to playing, while Brutal mode is an extra-hard challenge mode.
-Brutal mode isn't just an increase in numbers; the zerg gain quite a few tricks on Brutal. Overlords and overseer will spew creep to stop you from placing new buildings, zerglings and banelings will have their respective speed upgrades, hydralisks get increased range, and so on. Yes, this means fast ultralisks.
-All Zerg units on Brutal are 3/3. Yes, this means a lowly Zergling has 3 armor, cutting turret damage in half.

-Restore ability now has auto-cast option which is off by default (auto-cast restorers are gooood)

Balance Changes:

-Baneling health reduced to 25 (was 30)
-ship energy regens faster.
-Siege tanks now only deal half damage to friendly targets.
-The Transport ship is now a detector
-Scanner Tower is now also a Detector
-Reworked the terrain in the starting area.

Minor improvements/bugfixes:

-Changed button icon for seeker missile; autocast should now appear properly.
-changed button icon for restore to accomodate auto-cast.
-Restore can no longer be used on Mineral Fields
-Overlords and overseers no longer give supply
-Protoss units can now be repaired at reasonable speeds
-Drones should no longer burrow when attacked
-fixed pathing footprint of Minigun Turrets

Liking the changes. My feedback and questions:

I like how you adjusted the current mode difficulty down slightly to smooth the progression, then added another, harder mode. One of the main attracting features of this game is its difficulty to win and how you can have fun without winning. Adding an "easy" mode would have robbed new players of the experience and made them focus on winning. With the higher difficulty, you can have fun while just playing, and when you win it is really a remarkable achievement.

Thanks for letting us one-shot Banes with Lasgun. Gives us more of a reason to actively participate in the defense early on.

Thanks for the new starting area. It was needed, but I have yet to try a long-term base there.

Restore auto-cast! Yay! I feel this gives me a real reason to build one. I'm sure others would disagree, but I would just rather have a Mule set to auto-repair. That way I can focus elsewhere, and I use a Mule rather than a Heal Bot because they are cheaper, and I get one anyway to mine.

What exactly is new with Salvage? It can be canceled, which is nice for the team so they can cancel a noob's mistake. And if you are not in time it tells you who did it so you have someone to blame. Is there anything else? My two cents: let most buildings that only one person owns salvage as fast as they do in 8.2, (I don't know about 9.0, I did not pay attention, oops!) without a message. But have Factories, Science Facilities, etc., take about 15-30 seconds, and give them a message when the salvage starts. That way the team can cancel. And because the buildings have so much health, there should be no reason why the added time is a disadvantage. Supply Depots can still salvage fast and without a warning, because they are so common it would be annoying to see the message pop up every few minutes, and salvaging them is virtually always the best thing to do.

Oh, and no more annoying burrowed Drones!

Update on what is possibly an extension of the burrowing drone issue. Occasionally during the night, I will see a drone just sitting there, often in the middle of a path. It doesn't attack me, even when I walk right by it, well within this aggro range. Is it doing this instead of burrowing?


By the way, why were the drones burrowing in the first place? How could they? What prompted it? How did you fix it?

Just might help us figure it out.

imho casual is easy mode and brutal is ragequit mode. meddium would make for a quite casual match... its quite good but since the Great Popularity drop your efforts dont seem well appreciated D:

The Great Popularity Drop is the work of the new B.Net matchmaking system. I now really see why people hated it so much. Now when I play Krydon, I friend the experienced players that I come across. I think I will also direct them to this site. That way, IF people are interested, we can form more connections and organize games through the site. I'll start a thread in the Social Section to compile our names and codes. Please repost them there so I don't have to hunt them down.

Oh, question: any hints as to when or what is in the next patch? We are still loyal!

Starke wrote:Update on what is possibly an extension of the burrowing drone issue. Occasionally during the night, I will see a drone just sitting there, often in the middle of a path. It doesn't attack me, even when I walk right by it, well within this aggro range. Is it doing this instead of burrowing?


By the way, why were the drones burrowing in the first place? How could they? What prompted it? How did you fix it?

Just might help us figure it out.

Drones burrowing is the default Melee AI for them - when the AI sees that its drones are being harassed, it'll burrow them to avoid losing them. I fixed this by removing the default melee AI for drones.

Starke wrote:The Great Popularity Drop is the work of the new B.Net matchmaking system. I now really see why people hated it so much. Now when I play Krydon, I friend the experienced players that I come across. I think I will also direct then to this site. That way, IF people are interested, we can form more connections and organize games through the site. I'll start a thread in the Social Section to compile our names and codes. Please repost them there so I don't have to hunt them down.

Oh, question: any hints as to when or what is in the next patch? We are still loyal!

The next patch is going fairly well, and I'll try to have it done within a week or so.