Larian Studios Forums Dragon Commander Dragon Commander - Beta Beta patch 1.0.101.9727

Hi guys,

We are experimenting with the pace of the game and so in the version that we've made available now, you'll notice a significant decrease in tempo. Let us know what you think please. We will be making more changes over the coming days as we try to integrate all of the feedback that we've been receiving.

List of changes:

- fix crash on startup
- update art for several UIs
- fixes to movement (units should not walk over water anymore)
- fixes homing missiles who have dragon as target
- attachments for units are cloaked aswell
- infantry doing kamikaze jump will decloak
- AI will check buff cards before playing
- research during combat is only possible in skirmish games now
- cloaked units cannot capture buildings
- lobbies will stay alive during game
- fixed crash when unit is destroyed while executing a skill
- fixed positioning of pawn and building tooltips
- fixes to pathfinding
- most dragon & unit skills' cooldowns are lowered
- recruitment center's income rate slightly decreased
- fighter's bombs are improved
- tank's shock wave skill is improved
- turret's HP & damage increased
- warlock's damage decreased
- bomber's AOE upgrade is fixed
- transports & zeppelins recruit cost is lowered
- sea & ground mine's range is increased
- battleship's nuke has increased HP
- grenadier's chemical warfare skill is more efficient
- grenadier's AOE upgrade is slightly increased
- dragon cost is lowered from 25 to 20
- dragon survivability improved
- dragon skill 'Blood Leech' decreased healing a bit
- dragon skill 'Eye of the Patriarch' increased damage
- dragon skill 'Friends with Benefits' works correctly now
- dragon skill 'Bastion' is improved
- dragon skill 'Aegis' is improved
- Updated soundbanks
- Large unit balancing overhoal
- gamespeed changes
- Only 3 different gamespeed settings
- Added subtitles to tutorial videos
- Fixed dragon loadout problems in 4:3 screen ratios
- Country tooltip is not shown when not hovering over a country
- Fixed card tooltip on the tactical map
- AI likes to take neutral armies now on the strategy map
- Added password support to server
- Updates to tutorials
- Fixed dragon research not refreshing
- Made radial menu smaller
- Fixed autoresolve units debuff cards
- Chat is possible during "waiting for players" screen
- Fixes to the imp buster
- Fixed price of some dragon skills
- Several updates and bug fixes to strategy AI
- Cleaned up card-menu
- Added card tooltip
- Correctly clean up Area effect manager at end of combat
- Crashfix when opening and closing slots in the multiplayer UI
- Fixes to options menu
- Prevent red blur during worldview
- Correctly calculate support costs when a loaded transporter dies
- Only countdown in multiplayer UI when players are involved
- Fixed cursor while in dragon mode
- Performance optimizations
- Stability fixes
- starting recruits in skirmish mode

Patchnotes *before* patch as it's supposed to be. Well done, the patch is already downloaded. I'll play after dinner

Nice! I recognize a lot of the things I tested out and posted about are fixed.

There are a few glaring issues I have encountered, I'll reboot and see if it fixes it but I posted in another thread a few new problems.

http://www.larian.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=468441#Post468441

Update: ok, the unit and building selection is working now but I would really like to see the boost in recruits brought back.
Say, there is a 2v2 match, one player looses his army and most of his expansions, the ally can hold the ground while he goes and tries to capture sites to build back up, the population is depleted, with the boost from capturing those structures he could still contribute something.

The game REALLY slowed down as well after this change. Please, bring back the boosts from capturing the resource points.

Played a couple of matches on an AI-only campaign map, so here are my first impressions:
I like the new pacing.
Dragon's survivability is better now.
The improved turrets are much more useful.
UI improvements are good as well.

I noticed some performance drops during offscreen fights, though.

Pace:
While I admit I was surprised to see the big recruit bonuses from capping structures done away with, I think I like the resulting pace much better. Capturing points doesn't turn into one huge recruit clickfest rush, and losing units while capturing a base actually hurts now, as you don't get an instant refund from the capture. It makes the strategy and unit composition and micro play a much stronger role than sheer volume. Rock paper scissors now actually matters! I think turning recruit bonuses off has added many more positive things than leaving the bonuses intact did. Bravo.

Campaign board:
Now in the campaign setting, the extra units bring in to a fight via cards and factories matter a heck of a lot more now that you don't have crazy income/production in RTS. And nixing research in forges/factories/aero makes your research choices matter. Great improvement.
However I am still encountering a bug where the immunity and ultimate immunity cards aren't working. The country are still freely attacked after and as the card is played.

Turrets:
I like the tougher turrets. They are no longer puny pushovers and the dragon overheats on one instead of wiping out 3 before he tires.

Dragon:
The dragon feels stronger now. With the pace and the skill increases from the patch, he's much more potent. That being said, I hope the AI will get dragons as it feels very one sided. And despite Dragon's update, he's still kept in check from playing ninja base raider with better turrets.


Overall after playing through an MP campaign vs AI (2v2):
Perhaps I've just gotten over the learning curve from putting quite a few hours in, but I think I like it way more than when I first started out (after this patch). I find myself with a nice balance of dragon playtime, macro and micro. The turn based strategy and mercenary reinforcements play a stronger role now. The start of an RTS game is slow and gradually increases as a round progresses, versus starting off with high intensity production from structure capture recruit bonuses. This brings it more in line with most RTSs that start with slow economy and gradually increase as players expand. Having the slow start makes those extra units (in campaign) matter for taking early recruiting centers to boost income.
Unit composition and micro play more of a roll as players are not effectively refunded losses for capturing contested bases.

All in all a big step forward methinks. But that's just from this player. Cheers to the Dev team. But if the things I am liking are veering towards mainstream and away from the core essence of Dragon Commander, than please take my perceptions with a grain of salt, and keep your game-feel true to Larian's goals.

At this point, I feel very gratified to having placed my preorder and suporting this product. I've only played Divinity 2: ego draconis for Larian titles, and I'm glad to be supporting them after seeing how much effort they put in, the quality of their product, QA, and their appreciation of the feedback from their players. Regardless of the future changes they may make, I'm pleased to support them.

Finished my first 2v2 ai campaign with the new patch and I'm very impressed with the changes made. The dragon and the unit abilities feel far more useful, and the overall pacing allows for far more tactical encounters. I sincerely hope the devs pursue this level of pacing for the finished game. Good job guys!

I did have 2 rounds where I wiped out my opposition (in the rts mode) and the game didn't end, but otherwise just a couple of crashes - sent the files in after.

Please give us the old pace back as an option. I don't hate the new speed, but I really liked it a lot better when it was faster.

Did you go to the options menu and switched the game speed from Normal to Fast?

I'd like to mention that we aren't getting patch notes for every release. It would be better if we did.