With this release the old 1faction branch of CA fullfils one of its major goals, a mere 6 years after creation. Each factory now has a unique constructor, something we wanted to do and never got around to. The Gunship Plant now as Wasp as its constructor. Wasps are slower and more expensive than Cranes but come with much increased build power and more health.
In other news, contrived constructor connotations continue with a newly conforming Constable, err, Freaker. The old name always lacked descriptiveness whereas Constable matches Moderator and the slowbeam theme.
Balance
Gunships now have their own constructor: Wasp. Crane is unchanged and is now restricted to Planes. It compares the Crane as follows:
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Cost 220 → 300
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Speed 180 → 93 elmo/s [?]
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Build Power 4 → 7.5 M/s
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Health 240 → 600
This change fixes the inconsistency dual-factory nature of Crane and is also is meant as a nerf to earlygame Gunships. The new constructor is slower and bulkier so is a better fit to the theme of its factory.
Claws (Wolverine mines) now spawn if their Wolverine died before impact. Previously they did not.
Target Behaviour
There are a lot of target behaviour improvements/fixes in this version so we've given them their own section.
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Heatrays now have a significant preference for nearby targets. They previously had a preference but it was weaker than most other factors. Heatrays still target armed units before unarmed ones.
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Gravity guns no longer target nanoframes. Gravity guns never affected nanoframes so this is a fix. Note that gravity guns have never targeted structures, regardless of whether the structure is a nanoframe.
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All weapons now prioritize identified radar dots as if they were a full health unit of their type. Previously all radar dots were given uniform priority.
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Spectre, Annihilator, Penetrator and Impaler now have an additional priority penalty to target radar dots of mobile units.
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Outlaws move closer to their target when firing.
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Slashers now target everything with a fight order. This is to make them stop and fire at things which other units consider not worth stopping for (Razor, Solar and Dirtbag).
Interface
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Tooltips now have an option to make them larger, for larger screen resolutions.
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Many menu categories and subcategories now have icons.
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All menus have a consistent size, left justified category text.
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Changed HUD Skin and Gesture Menu paths.
Misc
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Freaker is now called Constable.
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Improved Crane, Rapier and Vindicator wingtrail and jet effects.
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Fixed CAI artillery production.
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Added startbox to Seth's Ravine.
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Fixed ATI error with map edge extension.
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Fixed aircraft constructors turning around when construction is initiated.
Highlights from v1.4.5.0
We missed the release notes from the previous version so here are some highlights:
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Swifts now pull up near the end of their strafing run. This is a buff against low ranged ground units, especially those with AoE weapons.
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Smoothing weapons (Quake, Big Bertha etc..) now have smoother terrain at the edge of their smooth radius. This makes tanks more likely to be able to climb a Quake ramp. In addition, Quake impacts now jiggle units and can cause them to fall off cliffs.
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Double pressing 'L' with a mixed selection of transports and units will cause the transports to load the units. This command is an action which can be rebound through 'Game/Command Hotkeys'.
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Right clicking a geothermal vent with only constructors selected will queue a Geothermal Plant.
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Geothermal vents now have a tooltip.
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Added a toggle to make cloaked units (exept Gremlin and Spectre) automatically hold fire when cloaked. [?]
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Endgame graphs now have a toggle between individual players and entire teams.
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Commander initial unit state now works for priority.
