Phantom Brigade Hotfix #8

▲ - a buff was applied
▼ - a nerf was applied
⮂ - a tradeoff occurred
🦾 - a change was made based on community feedback

Changes and new features

• 🦾 Adjusted contest mechanics to make raiding more straightforward. Escalation increase over time can no longer progress to a next level: only winning a fight can progress the escalation meter further. Players can avoid the contest state or higher escalation by leaving a province, with no time limit.
• 🦾 Added more information to overworld UI. Selected POI will display escalation increase after combat, making it easier to choose safe targets while raiding. During province contest, the game will additionally display faction strength changes.
• 🦾 Added a difficulty setting for Home Guard strength decay during province contest. The decay can be disabled entirely. Note: battle sites will not spawn if the decay is disabled and Home Guard score remains above 90%.
• 🦾Added hint that spacebar can be used to skip dialogue
• Added text hint for how to multi-select in the inventory screen
• Items can be marked as "favorite" with a new button, making it easier to track your favorite loot in inventory.

Balance Changes

• ▼ Reduced the per-missile damage of the Scythe ML (75 > 45), increased heat generation (130 > 140)
• ▼ Reduced the total damage of the Hydra ML (160 > 140).
• ▲Increased the leading factor for friendly units, slightly improving accuracy of player attacks
• ▼Locked level upgrading on boss reward weapons

Visual improvements

• Improved the visuals of Shieldbearer and Frigate bosses
• Improved the boss weapon visuals
• Added new destruction effects to the Shieldbearer boss shields
• Improved the camera animation at the start of boss battles
• Improved background detail and prop placements on a number of new maps
• Fixed floating grass appearing in the corner of every combat encounter
• Fixed explosion effects not appearing on some of the background vehicles
• Fixed the smoke effects on boss part destruction sticking around for multiple turns
• Fixed missing distant sun shadows, improved distant shadow quality

Fixes

• Fixed the Hydra ML randomly targeting units in all directions instead of prioritizing targets ahead of it
• Fixed missiles fired from the rear launcher on boss units not being accurately predicted during planning
• Fixed missing translations to the message log button tooltips
• Fixed missing localization for the overworld boss tutorial
• Fixed planned actions being deleted from the timeline after a unit recovers from a cross-turn crashing state
• Fixed the "Token of Appreciation" event triggering at sites other than civilian settlements
• Fixed mech frame salvage causing combat units to remain active in player saves.
• Fixed the game failing to enter combat at radio station sites.
• Fixed missing tooltip on the Home Guard strength progress bar during province contests.
• Fixed the original level of parts not being loaded from saves, enabling unlimited level upgrading.
• Fixed an issue in the database system that led to some config mods failing to load
• Fixed the game failing to load configs with tags introduced through mod libraries
• Fixed cargo units sometimes spawning next to their retreat zones
• Fixed mislabeled side launchers on the Redback frigate boss