During the last few months, Sergeant Volkov and the Matriarch demonstrated their full potential when working as a team: Wolf & Owl have been proven to be an incredibly strong combination, because doubling the spawn rate of an Owl did not only mean twice the damage, but also twice the meat shield. Once they hit the field, fighting the almost endless stream of Mice quickly became a disheartening endeavor for the opponent. Preventing the duo, however, was not easy, either: especially Lizards, Snakes, Skunks and Machine Guns served as powerful tools to safely get to the late game.
That is why this balance patch introduces several changes, not only to the interaction of Wolf and Owl, but also generally trying to empower aggressive playstyles in the early and mid game.
It also contains some modifications behind the scenes that should improve ranked matchmaking and prevent occasional desyncs.
Multiplayer Balance
Changes in a Nutshell
Expansions start with 1/3 of their full health and slowly increase their max. hitpoints in the first 200s after construction.
Wolf buff lasts longer on cheap units, but shorter on anything expensive. A buffed Owl will no longer spawn Mice twice as fast, but only 50% faster.
Skunk gas deals less damage, but can be fired at longer range. Snake poison kills more slowly, but lasts longer.
Health automatically regenerates anywhere on the map (not only in friendly territory).
Toad, Falcon, Ferret, and Barbed Wire get a small buff.
Lizard and Machine Gun get a small nerf.
Neutral Cabins deal less damage.
Commander burrows faster.
Details on Big Changes
Gristmill: Expansions will start with 50 HP and gain +10 HP every 20s, until they reached 150 HP (starting Mills remain unchanged, with 150 HP from the beginning). Mill HP is displayed during construction, when the Mill is damaged, or briefly after it gained +10 HP.
Wolf: Buff duration depends on the target's cost, i.e. 4s on t3 units/warrens and Drumfire Cannons (180 Food), 6s on Balloons and t2 warren (120 Food), 12s on t2 units, t1 warrens, Pigs and Machine Guns, 36s on t1 units. As a rule of thumb, one Wolf can keep 360 Food continuously buffed. (Previously it could buff up to six units/structures of any kind, and was thus much more efficient combined with t3 than with t1.)
Skunk: Has 6 range (from 4), deals 2 DPS (from 3).
Snake: Has 32 HP (from 28), can no longer attack structures. Each tag of poison lasts 20s, deals 1 DPS per tag, no longer slows down affected units, and prevents natural healing (previously 2 DPS, got cured only when natural healing kicked in). Healing in water or from Pigeons still works, but does not cure the poison.
Natural Healing: Starts after 10s of not getting hit regardless of territory (5s for cold bloods, at the same rate), and only if the unit is not poisoned. Previously, natural healing only worked in friendly territory, after 5s, cured poison, and was 3x as strong for cold bloods (Lizards, Toads, Chameleons, Snakes).
Smaller Changes
- Lizard: 7 HP (from 8).
- Toad: 8 HP (from 9), flat 3 damage in a 3x3 area (from 4 single target damage + 2 aoe); 4x "crit" factor on aoe damage against structures remains.
- Falcon: Shoots 16 bullets in one burst (from 12), then reloads for 2.4s (from 1.8s); damage per bullet, DPS etc. remain the same.
- Ferret: 7 DPS (from 6 DPS), i.e. one shot in 2s, dealing 14 damage.
- Owl: Spawns 4 Mice at 2s intervals, then pauses for 8s. Wolf buff will only reduce the spawn interval from 2s to 1s, not the 8s pause. (Previously 3 Mice at 1s intervals with 7s pause; Wolf buff doubled the speed.)
- Mouse: Cannot be healed, stimmed or targeted by focus fire, and cannot attack Barbed Wire, anymore. Life time to 36s from 30s.
- Barbed Wire: 8 HP (from 7), vision to 2 tiles (from 4), sell timer removed.
- Land Mine: Vision to 2 tiles (from 4; also fixed a bug that could result in a desync when Mines were sold).
- Machine Gun: 5 DPS (from 6).
- Cabin: 50 HP (from 32) and 1 DPS (from 3).
- Flying: All flying units/structures have +4 vision (from +2); only Balloon vision range has been reduced by 2, so it remains unchanged.
- Cloaked: Cloaked units/structures do not emit visible particles.
- Commander: Burrows in 1s (from 1.5s).
Community News
In November, the Tooth and Tail Championship 2021.2 culminated in a very close match between the Premier league finalists, mad Dr. Mishi and Tatanka, the master of Wolf-Owl. I really recommend you watch them: url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DgAcMDAzeH0
Congrats to both of them, as well as to the other finalists: Queen Sasha (Premier Division), Meek, xnor, and Big Pimpintosh (Intermediate Division)!
Meanwhile the "Fall Open" of Gent's 21 Duels only waited for the Championship to end, and started right afterwards - a series of boss battles with special rules.
See the stages and challengers here.
... and find the links to (re-)watch the casted episodes here.
Enjoy!
EELuminatus