Planetary Annihilation: TITANS · published
Greetings Commanders,
It’s been a while.
The wars fought across the galaxy have been plentiful and continue inexorably from the present into the future. But in war, one must adapt!
Our best Commanders and their internal processing units have run their neural network subroutines, testing time and again the performance of their unit blueprints in different scenarios; continually evolving and improving the combat-readiness of their armies.
Their computations have concluded and the technical alterations are being rolled out, with a wave of updated units flooding onto planets across the stars!
Now get back out there and learn how best to annihilate your foes with these evolved mechanisms of war.
Vehicles
Stryker
Strykers beat almost all T1 units in a direct flight and were too similar in role to the Dox. With a minor speed and range reduction, they have a harder time raiding and kiting the Spark, while still excelling defensively against other raiders.
Ant
Ants are meant to be the main battle tank of PA, yet they have been outperformed by other more niche units. This increase in rate of fire buffs their overall damage output.
Drifter
Drifters have dominated the meta with their high range and ability to kill most tanks in two shots. A slight decrease in both range and damage will stop them from outranging dual laser turrets and give Ants a fighting chance.
Leveler
Ever since their range increased, Levelers have dominated almost every other land unit. Reducing it will make dealing with them more manageable.
Vanguard
While their stats might initially seem impressive, Vanguards struggle to get in range of their targets and have a disappointing impact versus armies. The range increase improves their zoning ability, and the new rate of fire will make them more effective against T1.
Manhattan
Manhattans have serious issues with navigating, especially with getting out of bases and passing quickly through teleporters. These changes improve that handling and increase their chance of making it to their target.
Bots
Dox
Dox are meant to be the primary raiding unit in the game. A speed increase helps them move around the map quicker, while the acceleration change improves their handling when dodging.
Spark
Sparks have proven too good against Dox and Strykers. Reverting the range allows for more diverse unit compositions again.
Grenadier
Firing deviation increased from 1 to 1.5
Splash damage REMOVED
Splash radius REMOVED
Grenadiers are intended as long range support units, but overperformed against mobile units. Removing the area of effect of their weapons will make them a lot less reliable against armies, while still countering static defenses.
Stinger
Increasing the Stinger’s speed allows them to keep up with bot raids and expanding fabbers, as well as dodge bombing runs. They remain significantly weaker than other T1 AA so will need higher numbers to reliably escort your units.
Slammer
The Slammer’s torpedo weapon is rather lacklustre in practice. This increase in rate of fire significantly improves their performance against naval targets.
Mend
Mends have always been too fragile to warrant the 1000 metal investment. With their increased durability they can now take a shot or two and continue providing frontline support.
Colonel
The Colonel proved too expensive for what it offered. It is now cheaper to make it more viable, while its health has been reduced to compensate. Handling is also improved.
Air
Hummingbird
The HP reduction reduces the snowball effect of air superiority giving players a better chance to come back and contest the air layer via ground AA.
Icarus
Target priorities changed:
Icarus targeting priorities have been updated to help them single out fabs and AA.
Phoenix
As with Hummingbirds, this is to reduce the snowball effect of air..
Kestrel
The Kestrel will be able to do slightly more damage while putting itself in more danger to do so.
Hornet
The Hornet has been modified to better suit its role of picking off high priority targets from afar.
Naval
Piranha
The Piranha’s current relatively long range made them immune to all static defences and highly effective at denying shorelines. This reduction will solve that problem.
Orca
The removal of the Orca’s torpedo weapon aims to make them a more dedicated destroyer.
Narwhal
To achieve a slightly more complex naval balance, the Narwhal’s dedicated torpedo weapon from classic PA has been restored.
Barracuda
The Barracuda’s radar stealth turned them into a hard counter for torpedo launchers. Removing this improves the options available to players.
Barnacle
Increases the Barnacle’s speed to the standard for T1 ships, improving their viability.
Stingray
Enabling the long-range tactical missile of Stingrays to target Air units significantly increases their survivability and zoning potential against T2.
Orbital
Solar Array
This production buff makes the Solar Array better than Advanced Energy Plants, making it worth building.
Omega
Despite costing half a titan’s worth in metal, Omegas have proven lackluster. They are now better at destroying Avengers and can clear out heavily fortified planets.
Titans
Atlas
For such an expensive unit they don't tend to live long enough to get a shot off. A health buff allows them to shrug off a lot more damage.
Ares
This reduction to health, along with the removal of their stomp, means the Ares will be punished if an army can close the distance.
Zeus
Multiple consecutive buffs to anti-air have made the Zeus much weaker. These changes compensate for this.
Economy
Advanced Metal Extractor
T2 metal was rarely worth the massive investment for a lackluster reward. Now with its reduced cost and increased production, the transition to T2 economy is smoother. Health has been lowered to make them a juicier target for raiding.
Energy Storage
Compared to metal storage the energy storage has not provided much value and was rarely built. This storage capacity boost makes it a useful buffer for your economy.
Jig
Jigs did pretty much everything: provided metal, energy, storage, and a nasty explosion to take out whatever just killed them. These changes are so players must rely more heavily on planets and make Gas Giant control a choice instead of a requirement.
Defenses
Single Laser Tower
Improves effectiveness for cost in relation to the Laser Tower and against Bots..
Advanced Laser Tower
Improved cost effectiveness and compensation for the range increases seen in the units it is meant to destroy.
Lob
Improves the viability of The Lob and the diversity of possible opening builds..
Unit Cannon
The unit cannon was underused due to its high cost and difficulty invading fortified planets. The cost reduction and addition of Storms make it a viable choice in games. The ability to build them on water is a quality of life change.
The maps from the 1v1 pools now have descriptions on the nature of the map, and 50 of them now support multiplayer game set-ups beyond 1v1s
A list of the updated maps is here:
Below is a reminder of the current 1v1 ranked map rotation: