Alpha 29 - Usability

Shoreline construction constraint (Game)

Structures must now be constructed some distance away from the shoreline (Shipyard and Sub Pen excluded, of course).

Artillery (AI)

Improved Artillery AI: The unit is now much less prone to abort it’s deployed state (“retract”) in response to whatever change in commands the player is doing, when enemy units are in the vicinity.

Distance tracking (AI)

Distance tracking for Helicopters and all Surface units have been improved. They now match the speed of their target during a chase. Hit-n-run helis now catch up with escaping Missile Ships/Destroyers.

Unassigned Commandos (Game, AI)

Unassigned Commandos now behave exactly as other units do. If you want to keep stealthy, make sure that your Commandos are always attracted to a command having the Move directive.

Amphibious Commands & Troopships (AI)

Greater attraction range for Amphibious Commands reducing the need to draw those pesky support-paths for Troopships to join! Amphibious Commands now include all Land units except Tank by default.

Group targeting (AI)

No more shots wasted on enemies with destruction pending.

Name changes (Game)

Say hello to Merchant Ship, Transport Jet and Landing Craft!

Point & Path command changes (Game)

The Point command now has higher priority than Path! Points now toggle between small (3 units) and medium (7 units, default) size. Paths are now insatiable, meaning that their unit attraction is now limited only by the competition with other commands. No more need to draw multiple overlapping 3-laner Paths when you want to execute a dedicated push!

Territory borders (Visuals)

Improved/more clear visual indication of territory control and conquest.

Conquest! (Sound)

New sound emitted whenever a new territory is conquered.

Modification of Defend and Air commands (UX)

Trying to relocate or toggle lanes on a command having already dispatched air units or entrenched positions, now results in a validation error instead of the command being modified (which caused aircrafts to be recalled and finished entrenchments to be lost).

Structure placement capital reservation (UX)

A reservation of capital is made when a structure placement is initiated, reducing the risk of getting an out-of-funds validation message once the placement is confirmed.

Sandbox welcome message (UX)

Displayed when the sandbox is started for the first time.

Tooltip text revision (UX)

All tooltip text has been revised.

Hostile territory pick warning (UX)

Owner of an already picked territory gets a warning and a clear indication when the opponent tries to pick it.

Pipeline construction (Game)

Pipeline construction is allowed even when construction of an energy producer at either end has not yet been completed.

Balance changes

• SAM/Missile Ship missile duration 4, damage 20
• Helicopter HP nerf 135 ⇒ 120
• Ports connected to 2 established Trade Routes now serve Merchant Ships twice as fast, causing average income from each trade route to stay around the expected ~120 capital. This is actually a bug fix and a major buff for chained trade routes.
• Industry upkeep 18 ⇒ 22 (+22%), break-even 9,3 ⇒ 7,9 (-15%)
• Town upkeep 36 ⇒ 45 (+25%), break-even 10,3 ⇒ 9,1 (-12%)
• City upkeep 100 ⇒ 120 (+33%), break-even 13,3 ⇒ 10,9 (-18%)
• Unit upkeep 10% ⇒ 7%
• Structure upkeep (non-eco) 6% ⇒ 4%
• Unit production cost +20%
• Producer production capacity +20%
• Structure construction cost (non-eco) +10%

Justification (to economy-related changes above):
   Unit and structure upkeep was so high that losing an entity was almost a zero sum game made up by the boost in economy from upkeep relief. Units & structures must be more precious than that. Units must also be less expensive to own, so that you can actually afford to dig those trenches and defend your now much more valuable eco-buildings. Eco buildings have received a significant buff, hopefully making them more viable as an alternative to territorial expansion.

Bug fixes

• Replays from sandbox lingering in server memory
• Unpaid chassis/recruits are put on production ramp
• Not playing animation when resuming entrenchment
• Loose mouse double-clicks
• Surface units not chasing landed helicopters
• Treasury overflow causing negative capital to be displayed in the economy bar

Alpha 27 - Patch 2

Inter-airbase transportation (Game)

PRESS and DRAG to a nearby air base, to create a special inter-airbase transportation command. Once issued, the command will make Freighters go back-and-forth between the airbases for transportation of the specified land units.

New tooltips (UX)

New tooltips covering all remaining special world items.

Balance changes (Game)

• General sea unit close-range detection buff
  It now requires only 2 sea units to detect Submarines point-blank
• Airstrip capacity 4 → 5 and production cost 175 → 200
  The Airstrip’s capacity-to-cost ratio has improved

Bug fixes

• Unselectable Point- or Disband commands in mountain areas
• Wrong player color for airstrips

Alpha 27 - Patch 1

Balance changes (Game)

Note that 7, 8 and 9 above tend to benefit the match “leader” and should have some positive effects on snowballing and late game pace. We have also identified the dangerous and elusive upkeep sink (when the leader has invested too heavily in non-investment infrastructure and military that cannot easily be launched against the enemy) as the primary reason for some late games to slow down to a crawl. We will look into various ways to address this, one of them being some kind of upkeep warning system similar to the one already in place for energy.

Alpha 27 - Replays

Replays (Video)

Any multiplayer- or sandbox match is now temporarily recorded into server memory. You can download this stream as a Line War replay file (*.lwreplay)  to your PC by clicking the “Download replay”-button on the lower-right of the end game screen. The file is only guaranteed to be watchable on a game client of the same version.

Watching a replay is easy. Go to the main screen, click “Load replays” and select the replay you want to view. Once the replay has started, you can change playing speed, toggle player perspective, enable/disable UI/commands/FoW, and pause. Rewinding is not supported. Toggle the replay legend window to learn about the various replay-related keyboard shortcuts.

Helicopter control (Game, AI)

Great effort has been made - both in terms of design, user experience and technical approach - to improve the way helicopters are controlled. In short, the ambition has been to treat the Helicopter as a hybrid between surface and air units.

Let’s summarize this new behaviour:

• All new Helicopter control logic and AI applies only to Path commands. Helicopter behaviour in response to any other type of command remains unchanged.
• Path commands only attract Helicopters that are parked within the command’s attraction zone (i.e. identical to surface unit behaviour).
• Helicopters attracted to a Path+Move command seek to land somewhere near the path’s arrowhead, even if the territory is unsafe. Secondly, Helicopters turn back along the path and seek to land somewhere within the command’s attraction zone. Note: This will have the desired effect of the helicopter being re-attracted by the command over and over again until a landing spot can be found near the arrowhead! If all else fails and the Helicopter reaches the end of the path, it will accept any valid landing spot that can be found, even if not within the attraction zone.

Sound FX (Audio)

• Major overhaul of battle sounds - weapon and unit combination have different impact sounds
• New SAM and Missile Ship vulcan-like sound effect
• New Troopship cannon sound effect
• New UI sounds for drawing, selecting, deleting commands
• New UI sounds for the territory picking phase
• All structures now emit a unique looping sound while being constructed
• All producers now emit a unique sound when producing units
• When a unit is produced it emits a unique recognizable sound
• Energy producers emit sound while producing energy
• Depot emits a sound while it is being filled
• Rocket explosion sound improved (and longer lasting visuals =)

Music (Audio)

• Two menu music songs
• One Victory end-screen song
• One Defeated end-screen song
• 15 new situational in-game songs for different states - music will play randomly within 10 minute periods and when ambience escalates between the levels:
  • Exploration (100% own units)
  • Encounter (first encounter of enemy units)
  • Standoff (mixed units from both players but little combat)
  • Combat (many units in combat)
  • Warzone (very many units in combat)

End game screen (Visuals)

• New ‘Download Replay’ button on the end screen after a match or sandbox session
• New Defeat Screen
• New Victory Screen

Server world generation (Performance)

The server no longer performs an unnecessary loading of the world while players change the seed on the Select World screen.

Airstrip model (Graphics)

• New more discrete world-integrated airstrip
• New airstrip construction animation with a bulldozer

Bug fixes

• Port displaying incorrect information about production
• Server time speed not reset after sandbox mode
• Box selection expanding from center rather than from top-left
• Production-parts flying around during production

Alpha 26 - Patch 1

Balance changes (Game)

• Artillery range buff, 4.5 -> 5.0
• Infantry production cost nerf, 12 -> 14
• Infantry upkeep buff, 13% -> 10%
• Barracks upkeep buff, 7% -> 6%
• All units and structures now have a relative upkeep of 10% and 6%, respectively

Alpha 26 - Sandboxed

Sandbox mode with dual player support (Game)

Play around in the new sandbox to learn the basics of the game, experiment with different scenarios and test the economy and game balance. Besides full support for 2 players (with possibility to toggle between them), the new sandbox also has the following features:

• Spawn 1 or 10 units anywhere with a Shift + Key combination
• New window containing a sandbox-specific keyboard shortcut legend
• Picking phase with a workflow identical to that of regular matches
• Change game speed up and down
• Add or subtract resources in chunks of 1000 capital / 200 energy
• Toggle active player
• Arbitrary picking of any conquerable territory by the active player

Repair costs in the economy tooltip (Game)

An average of the last 5 seconds of structure repairs now appear at the bottom of the economy tooltip.

Consistent structure animations (Animation)

A town, city, lumber mill, farm, mine or port that is under construction now shows an animation similar to that of other structures, with scaffolding, cranes and multiple visual indications of progress. Economic buildings will always have a construction crane (as opposed to a construction arm for producers) and the crane will disappear when the building is finished.

Bug fixes

• Port construction did not always snap into position
• Commandos could tilt awkwardly when dropped into broken terrain or mountains
• Verified that the transportation of Tanks do not incur energy costs for the tanks themselves

Alpha 25 - Polish

New UI look’n’feel (Visuals)

All white icons have been replaced by colorful icons identical to units and structures found in the game. The icons are also colored to the player’s own color so blue Player 1 has blue units in the game bar.

The Main Bar has been removed from the bottom of the screen and is replaced with three category buttons in the lower right, F1 Commands, F2 Construction, and F3 Production. The bars are color coded with Red, Green, Blue and connect to the icons to the left which also have the same color to make it easier to quickly determine which bar is active. There is also a title in the lower right corner to emphasize this.

The context bar to the right is white and has received headings to make it easier to understand.

Game bar buttons now have a mouse-over enlargement, a mouse-enter click, and a unique toggle on/off sound to make it easier to determine if you are activating or deactivating something.

New Settings Menu (UX)

A new settings menu can be accessed in two ways:

• Main Menu > Settings
• In-game F10 > Settings

A more detailed game settings panel appears where you can change:

• resolution
• window/fullscreen mode
• UI-scale
• default camera zoom
• camera pan-speed
• tooltip delay
• hot-key overlay
• change audio volume

UI scaling (UX)

In-game UI scaling can be changed from the new Settings menu (accessed through main menu or through F10 > Settings in game). UI scaling offers 5 levels of scaling from Tiny to Huge. This will also be useful for 4K monitors where older versions had unrecognizably small icons.

Stop all production (Game)

Added a button in the Production Bar that cancels production on all player-owned producers.

Game timer (UX)

A timer displaying the current game time has been added to the upper-center position of the UI.

In-game screen resolution picker (UX)

The all-to familiar Unity screen preferences dialog has been replaced by in-game equivalents in the game settings window (accessible from both main menu and while playing).

Balance changes (Game)

• Infantry speed buff 0.35 → 0.36
• Artillery/SAM speed buff 0.32 → 0.33
• Stress rate (when hasting or entrenching) reduced from 45 → 33.75 HP / min. This means that the maximum hasting period (for a unit at full health) has now been extended from 60 to 80 seconds, and that the fatigue penalty for entrenching went from 15 HP to only 11 HP.

Bug fixes

• Ships could get stuck inside a harbour
• Units sometimes didn’t fire upon a structure even if it had been revealed
• Firing- and impact sounds could not be heard if the attacker was hidden
• Point commands at sea were rendered on top of ships

Alpha 24 - Patch 1

Warhead impacts audible and visible for hidden enemies (Game)

When hidden enemy units launch warheads, like torpedoes, the warheads will make an impact sound and show the impact visual effects. Previously a sub could sneak up to a sea refinery and launch its torpedoes in an overly stealthy fashion and it was difficult to notice that you were under attack until it was too late.

Improved rocket explosions (Visuals)

Rocket impacts now send a physics shockwave too so dead soldiers and debris is pushed out from the epicenter.

Rocket trails visible after impact (Visuals)

Rocket trails remain in the sky after impact. It looks better compared to when they just disappeared and it also helps you localize where the launch pad may be even a few moments after the impact.

Alpha 24 - Rocketeer

Launchpad & Rocket (Game)

Introducing the deadly Rocket that is produced at a Launchpad. The pad is a very stealthy building (just like a Sub Pen) and can produce and accommodate 1 rocket at a time. Once you fire the rocket, the rocket itself can be seen from afar (it has the same visibility as a City). This could potentially reveal the location of your launchpad.

The destructive power of a single rocket is immense at the explosion epicenter. Only a City can withstand a direct strike. Units/structures of lesser HP will perish or take serious damage even if situated some distance away from the blast.

The range of a rocket is equal to that of regular air units (blue circumference line). The rocket is a durable bastard, but it is not invincible and it can be shot down by enemy AA.

Friendly Commandos and Submarines take only half damage when exposed to the blast.

Pickable sea territories (Game)

Sea territories are now valid picks in the picking phase, but the first territory must still be a land territory. No units are spawned in picked sea territories. Use sea territory picks to grab a sea-based energy well or to jump to a nearby island during the picking phase.

Port construction & sea territory (Game)

Port construction no longer requires control of the sea territory outside the port.

Land VS land firepower buff (Game)

+20% firepower buff for all land vs land weapons. This will speed up land combat and increase overall risk for all land campaigns, without disturbing the balance between land vs sea or land vs air units.

Alpha 23 - Disband and Destroy

Disband command (Game)

A new command is issued by clicking the skull icon or pressing “T”, then clicking somewhere on the map. Works similarly to a Point command, but when the unit reaches its destination, it dies… Same goes for air units. If you only want to disband a few air units, make sure to have the unit types (or the command itself) active only for a brief period of time.

Target command on friendly structures (Game)

You can now designate your own structures as targets. In the current version, destroying your own buildings only makes sense if you want to get rid of the upkeep. In a future version, however, your structures will be conquerable by your enemy. When this happens, having or not having units present and ready to destroy your own buildings will become an important aspect/liability to consider.

Known issues (Bug)

• You can issue Disband commands having Land-receivers at sea (if you work at it!)
• You will see/hear the destruction and disappearance of enemy structures (due to self-targeting) even if in the FoW, given that you had knowledge of their presence beforehand

Alpha 22 - Strategic Zoom

Simple seamless camera zoom (UX)

You can now zoom the camera in and out with a field-of-view ranging from 20 degrees (130% zoom), via 26 degrees (100% zoom), to 40 degrees (65%). All possible player game actions can be taken regardless of current zoom level.

Subsequent territory picks cost capital (Game)

During the picking phase, picking the first territory is still “free” and mandatory. Any subsequent pick, however, comes at a cost of 200 capital each. A player who settles with only 1 territory will save 1000 capital. See also the game balance changes below.

Pre-construction (Game)

The first 1000 capital you spend will deliver pre-constructed buildings.

Balance changes (Game)

• Initial treasury raised to 2500 capital
• Infantry speed buff .33 → .35
• Artillery/SAM speed buff .30 → .32
• Infantry/Commando (“Riflemen”) forest armour buff 0 → 10% (firepower bonus stays the same: 10%)
• Territory HP nerf 700 → 600 (i.e. speeds up territory conquest slightly)

Alpha 21 - Patch 3

Smarter Troopship AI when loading

The whole troopship loading procedure has been improved. Troopships are now much less likely to leave an embarkation zone half-full. Loading does not halt or fail even when a beach is crowded.

Bug fixes

• It is now possible to draw a Commando+Freighter path over mixed terrain without getting validation errors or unexpected amphibious-style truncations
• More consistent validation for multi-terrain paths
• Air units travelling under the Move directive now strictly follow the route without stopping. This is especially important for Helicopters that now properly withdraw away from a dangerous zone when using the Point+Move command. When air units reach the “objective area”, targeting becomes less restrictive.

Alpha 21 - Patch 2

Bug Fixes Only

• Enemy trade routes are never displayed as active regardless of whether they are in fog of war or in plain sight. You have to look if cargo ships are commuting a trade route to figure it out if it is active.

Alpha 21 - Patch 1

Bug Fixes Only

• Fixed Commando animation glitch
• Restored missing destroyed pipeline effect
• Updated tooltip images for structures and artillery

Alpha 21 - Essentials Part II

New Haste directive modifier (Game)

The Engage and Move directive can now be toggled to include Haste .

If applied to energy consuming units, they get a 30% speed bonus and a raise in energy consumption by 60%.

If applied to non-energy consuming units, they get a 30% speed bonus and start suffering from fatigue causing HP to drop towards HP / 2 by 45 HP per minute. Once at or below HP / 2, the unit will start to stumble, causing the average speed to drop back to normal.

To recognize when units are under the haste modifier, foot soldiers have running animations, land and sea units have a dust trail, and air units have blue afterburners and wingtip trails.

Attack directive removed (Game)

Replaced by the Move directive if you want to push hard through enemy defenses, or by the new Target command if you want to push hard and take out a specific structure.

Move directive behaviour change (Game)

Once arriving at a Point+Move or Line+Move destination, units stand still and will not move away from their destination to engage enemy units, even if very close. They will of course still fire upon units if within range.

Defend directive: Entrenchments (Game)

When a unit arrives at a Line + Defend destination, entrenching  begins. Given that the unit can work uninterrupted, entrenching will complete after 20 seconds. Once entrenched, the unit enjoys a 30% armour and 20% firepower bonus.

For non-energy consuming units, entrenching is associated with exactly the same cost as travelling under Haste (see earlier section). Tanks consume energy equivalent to full speed travel while entrenching.

If an entrenchment is temporarily abandoned (by deselecting the unit type in the command bar), a detrenching  cooldown of 15 seconds is started. If left abandoned, the entrenchment will reverse and vanish after another 40 seconds.

If attacked from behind (90 degree backwards arc), entrenched units lose all their bonus.

Auto healing/repairing (Game)

All units that are completely still, idling and not in any way engaged in combat for 20 seconds, will start to auto-heal by 22.5 HP per minute. This state is depicted differently depending on the unit type (for example, Infantry and Commando start resting and stretching) while armoured units emit yellow weld sparks.

All costs associated with repairing air units have been removed. Auto healing and repairing comes for free.

Target command (Game)

A new command is issued simply by clicking an enemy structure.

Surface units assigned to the command will Move towards the designated structure and prioritize firing upon it once within range. Long-range units will close in on the target somewhat, to avoid stacking of trailing comrades.

Assigned air units will fly directly to the structure, then passing it repeatedly in a “clubs” flying-pattern, firing exclusively on it.

If the enemy structure is destroyed, the command is automatically removed. The command has priority second only to Line+Defend.

Note: Remember that the Target command is restricted to the Move directive, which can be toggled to Haste.

You can also click the Target command button in the game bar which highlights all targetable enemy structures in red.

Artillery and deployment (Game)

Artillery range is buffed from 3.7 to 4.5 units (22%). Artillery must now undergo a familiar deploying/retracting stage before being able to fire.

“Low energy”-warnings (UX)

When the energy reserve is in danger of becoming depleted, a warning is issued. Based on the recent energy consumption vs production, a warning flash means you have roughly 40 seconds until energy is out. A warning sound (plus red flash) means only 20 seconds remain.

All existing out-of-energy warnings on individual units are now stronger.

Energy consumption and air units (Game)

It is no longer possible to send units on missions without sufficient energy. Energy shortages will keep units grounded or have them return to base.

New Depot structure and pipelines (Game)

All produced energy (except the initial 25) must now be stored somewhere physically on the map. “Energy storages” - the Refinery, Powerplant and Depot - can be connected to each other via pipelines. Do so by selecting 1 or 2 such structures, then press “K” for Pipeline. A pipeline has a max bandwidth of 36 units per minute and costs 25 capital.

Refineries and Powerplants can store 30 units and be connected with 2 pipelines. Depots can store 120 units and be connected with 4 pipelines.

World generation changes (World)

• Restoring likelihood of energy wells to spawn out in the seas
• Restoring likelihood of generating sea-based territories
• Land units and commands can now occupy beaches which also improves ability to move through narrow chokes

Visual improvements (UX)

• Better contrast for Line+Defend commands and command decorations in any type of terrain
• Grenades now explode causing debris and craters

Bug fixes

• Validating seed number in SELECT WORLD
• Destroyer now correctly selects Depthcharge weapon instead of Grenade VS Submarines
• Destroyers no longer make an enemy-audible sound when produced
• No mooing from cows coming from enemy Industries in FoW
• Short amphibious commands more likely to be valid

Balance changes

• Refinery energy production buff +20%
• Powerplant  energy production buff +14%
• Territories no longer provide sight!

Alpha 20 - Patch 8

Balance-only changes

• Bomber buff range +25%
• Bomber buff total payload +15%
• Bomber buff speed +5%
• Bomber nerf production cost +20%
• Freighter buff range +25%
• Destroyer buff speed +12.5%
• Structure repair vs construction cost now 1:1
• Initial economy buff +50% (now 1500 capital)

Motivating the Bomber changes: Bomber will never be the go-to unit for single-targeting of structures. Neither is it a unit you could just spam to win the game if your opponent is aware of your plans. Its primary use is war of attrition. Now that structure repair is equally expensive as construction, it doesn't really matter that much if the Bombers return home leaving only burning, undestroyed structures behind. It hurts your enemy's economy just the same. The increased Bomber price tag and payload also has the effect of: 1) increasing the potential DPS launched from an airport, 2) making the Bomber even more fragile in terms of HP/cost ratio.

Alpha 20 - The Essentials Part I

Improved world graphics (Graphics)

The water has been replaced with transparent water with animated normal mapped and specular water. This allows you to see through the water to the bottom of the sea. Enemy submarines now follow the depth of the sea and are visually a bit more tricky to spot in deeper water. The sea-floor has varied depth in different locations. Sea units have improved ripple and wave effects. The mountains have been slightly improved but another big mountain update is due in the near future.

Improved Producer graphics and animations (Graphics)

All the producing structures (Barracks, Factory, Shipyard, Subpen and Airport) have been replaced with new stylized models. The construction of the structures are now animated in phases and you’ll learn to recognize the build phases so you know roughly how much time is left until you have a completed structure. One of the key things to look out for is when the scaffolding goes down the structure is nearly completed.

All the producers now have visible production of the units. This enables you to see which type of unit is currently being produced and how far the build has progressed. Again, you’ll learn to recognize the build phases to estimate how much time is remaining.

Improved damage and debris (Graphics)

Structures have a floating damage level that is illustrated by warped models and dark patches. When buildings and units explode they now interact with water and leaves rings of sea ripples before they slowly sink towards the bottom of the sea.

Unit production progress indication (UX)

Producers now display the current unit under production. Animations and visual hints provide the player with a rough estimate of progress and time to delivery.

Unit production round-robin, up-front payment and refunds (UX)

A Producers production configuration is now set to simply on/off for each type (it used to be quotients ranging from 0 to 1). Units will always be produced in a left-to-right round-robin sequence. Units are now paid up-front before production starts. If you deselect a type that is currently under production, a full refund is paid.

Increased world height (World)

The world's vertical height is now approximately 40% greater, making the map as a whole bigger. We hope this will alleviate some of the “West vs East”-tendency that many games can have. If not, we might go for an even greater vertical height in the future.

Much faster arrangement of units on a Line (AI)

Distribution, re-arrangement and arrival of units on a Line or a Point command is now approximately 5 ~ 10 times faster ! This includes drawing, relocating or reconfiguring a Line, as well as drawing neighbouring Lines. This was possible thanks to a new logic where units swap destinations with each other, whenever appropriate.

Internal swapping of positions on a Line (AI)

Once settled, pairs of units on the same Line command now swap positions eventually, so that units that are stronger/faster/melee stand on the front row.

Unit attraction and pathfinding (AI)

Units are no longer attracted to commands that are unreachable or lie very far away (in terms of pathfinding).

Paths carving through a Line (AI)

Given that the receiver setting of the carving path matches, units that were standing on the Line now swiftly start following the path, once issued.

Start chasing the next enemy (AI)

Units now immediately pick another nearby enemy to chase or attack after having destroyed the first one.

Frontal approaches to Lines of defense (AI)

Units now perform frontal approaches to Lines of defense on a route that is less likely to collide with the enemy.

Broken, corrupt amphibious paths (Bug)

Fixed bugs related to the drawing of amphibious paths in impassable areas, that could result in invisible, undeletable artifacts that kept attracting units.

Known issues (Bug)

We’re experiencing some regression with the return of picky command validation, sorry ‘bout that! Watch out for

• "Too much varying terrain" when drawing multi-lane paths having lane sections that touch incompatible terrain. Temporary remedy: Make sure you draw your paths carefully within the confines of the intended general terrain (land vs sea).
• "End of path is unreachable" when drawing a path that ends on a special item/structure.

Alpha 19 - Kickstarter

We've come such a long way by now and the game will soon be released. Therefore, we have decided not to create a Kickstarter project.

Alpha 18 - Sim City

Background

This sprint has been ongoing for a record 2-month period. Alas, it was planned before the very informative survey that you, the playtesters, completed after the last Focus Week. This is why many of the new features mismatch those requested from the survey.

New feature suite “Sim City” (Game Balance, Graphics)

Say hello to all the new entities!

Prior to Alpha 18, the only investment structure  (a structure whose only purpose is to generate capital) was the City. With this release, we add another 4 entity types to that category.

BEP = Break-even point [min]

Industry

The smallest, least expensive, least risky investment structure. They come in 3 different visual flavors (lumber mill, mine, farm) but are otherwise exactly the same. Constructed on industry sites.

BEP ~ 9 min

Income 18 capital

Town

A moderately risky investment. Constructed on town- or city sites.

BEP ~ 10 min

Income 36 capital

City

A Town can, on a few sites, be upgraded to a City. This is the most expensive and risky investment. The BEP takes into account the lost income of the Town that got replaced during the construction. Must be constructed on a city site where both a town and all connected industries have already been completed.

BEP ~ 13 min

Income 90 capital

Port

An investment structure like any other, but also produces cargo ships, connects with other ports via trade routes and can be attacked by submarines and ships. Must be constructed on a port site next to an already completed town or city .

The production of cargo ships can be toggled between

• Off - no ships are being produced
• Until Saturated - ships are being produced until all connected, activated  trade routes are saturated (i.e. running at maximum efficiency)
• On - ships are being produced unconditionally

BEP ~ 10 min

Income 30 capital ( not  including the trade route)

Cargo Ship

Defenseless sea-freighter that carries goods back and forth, thereby creating revenue from trade. Produced at ports at a production cost of 40 each. Cargo Ships are controlled via commands in the same way as all other units, but they prioritize established and activated trade routes . Don’t mess around trying to control them, but let them go about their business. A single delivery of goods is worth more than the production cost of the ship itself. They can be brought into battle for use as cannon fodder.

Trade Route

That’s the visible dashed lines you see in the seas. Worlds can have between 0 and 8 (?) of them. Once a Port has been constructed at either end of the route, production of cargo ships start/resume. The route can be activated/deactivated via selection and button toggling.

The estimated income of any saturated trade route (i.e. one that has the perfect number of cargo ships) is fairly constant and not dependent on the length, but a longer trade route is of course harder to protect.

BEP ~ 10 min

Income ~ 100 capital

More conquerable sea territories (Game Balance)

Some sea territories are now conquerable even while not containing an energy well.

Ladder web app (Ranking)

We've set up a ladder at https://linewar.com/leaderboard , go check it out! All completed matches are reported and ranks get updated immediately.

Pathfinding and distribution around structures (AI)

A structure now “carves a hole” in the navigable surface of the world, upon construction. Unit pathfinding takes advantage of this change and finds more efficient routes around structures. Commands are also notified of such changes in navigability and updates unit destinations accordingly, which can be seen in the picture below.

Changed auto correction for land commands (UX)

Issuing a land command with a reset command bar now auto-selects only Infantry + Artillery.

Changed auto correction for amphibious commands (UX)

Issuing an amphibious command with a reset command bar now auto-selects only Infantry + Commando + Artillery + Troopship.

New map generation algorithm (World)

The new map generator is noise based instead of randomly allocating water territories. This should allow for some more interesting maps and the algorithm will have more improvements in the future.

Disk map caching no longer used (Optimization)

Most maps are only played once and occupied 50MB of space each. The disk cache was removed and map generation times will drop in future releases for much faster generation due to planned optimization.

Construction cursor snapping (UX)

When you initiate the construction of a structure that is built on a special site (town, city, port, industry, and energy well) - the cursor will show up as a blue “ghost” where you can construct the structure. Red sites indicate that you don’t control the territory. The cursor also magnetically snaps into the correct building location when you move it close to a site.

Constructing over units and commands (UX)

When placing a structure, units are moved aside to allow construction instead of not allowing construction until units are moved.Placing a structure on top of a command confirms the construction rather than selecting the command.

World info overlay in "Select World" (Lobby)

You can toggle an icon overlay in the Select World by pressing TAB (or clicking the lower-left button). The icons will give you a better view of where sites and trade routes are located.

Balance changes (Game Balance)

Initial Capital Treasury

Increased from 800 to 1000

Helicopter

Increased operational range +12.5%

Increased speed +8%

Now prioritizes SAM & Missile Ship targets

Interceptor

Increased likelihood of picking air targets on first encounter

Airport

Reduced construction cost -22%

Reduced construction time -22%

Reduced production rate -22%

Reduced air unit capacity from 6 to 5

Shipyard

Reduced construction cost -22%

Reduced construction time -22%

Reduced production rate -22%

Airstrip

Increased HP +30%

Can now repair air units

Refinery & Powerplant

 Reduced upkeep -40% (now same as for all non-investment structures)

Territory

        Reduced income -20%

City

Major changes! See earlier section.

Visual updates (Graphics, Animation)

• Air unit repair effect (it was easy to think air units did not respond to commands while they were in fact under repair)
• Helicopter rotor start/stop animation and airplane engine flames off while grounded
• New structure explosions
• New explosion tree folding effect
• Deforestation now follows the footprint of a structure better and minimizes deforestation
• 20% larger airport and airstrips.
• New light angle to light up structures and units better
• New city model
• New models for city sites, town sites, and industry sites
• Special sites are now hidden when constructed upon
• More distinct plains/barren/snow patterns for biomes
• Changed game bar icons for Striker and Interceptor to represent in-game look of the units

Audio updates (Audio)

• Structure confirm placement c onstruction sounds

Fixed bugs (Bugs)

• Tank tracks and tank forest tree folding no longer visible in fog of war
• Enemy producer animations no longer changed for revealed producers that are in fog of war
• Trying to construct off the map no longer producers an error
• Reduced territory fog of war strength so multiple controlled territories won’t reveal commando units - you will need one or more units in a territory to detect commandos

Alpha 17 - The Right Stuff

Easy matchmaking (Matching)

Based on your feedback we have prioritized to implement a new "Play Now" matchmaking mechanism. You don't have to be Steam friends to play against each other and there is a matchmaking queue that a player will be matched against if anyone else clicks "Play Now". We still have a low number of playtesters so we expect that matchmaking will take some time. A notification will be sent to a new Studio Centurion Line War Discord server that someone is waiting in the queue to increase the chance that some will join.

Single-player “Sandbox” (Tutorials)

Play against a passive dummy computer, to get familiar with the game. You can access the sandbox from the main menu. The opponent won't do anything other than to pick a start territory, so this is not a "single player mode" but instead it's a place where you can practice to draw commands, conquer territories, construct buildings, play around with command receivers, and more. This will be the base for new tutorials in the future, but for now - it's just a sandbox.

Improved options for scouting (Game Balance)

We're taking a first small step to address the lack of good scouting possibilities in the game. This involves the Commando and Interceptor units. See BALANCE CHANGES for more details.

New menu & music (UI, Music)

There is a new short piece of menu music and the menu has a new look and feel. The tanks in the menu are not implemented in the game, but in the next iteration of unit upgrades, this is potentially what units would look like ingame. Chat behaves differently, you have to enter into chat with Enter key and exit with a blank line Enter key press as well. You cannot delete commands or use the Command bar while the chat is active. New options placeholder screen (only music volume enabled).

Camera field of view (UX)

Camera Field of View (FOV) has increased by 8% to see more of the battle field.

Balance changes (Game Balance)

Commando

This unit was too efficient at conquering territories. The following changes serves to address this imbalance but also gives the Commando a more clear "special ops" and recon profile:

   greater sight range

   increased speed +10%

   reduced firepower -16.6%

Interceptor

Besides being an air-superiority fighter, the Interceptor now has a strong reconnaissance role as well. The plane could, for example, aid naval units in finding (and fighting) Submarines, like Destroyers do.

   greater sight range

   greater close-range detection capability

Known issues (Bugs)

- If two people accept challenges at the exact same time, matchmaking can connect the wrong people. This will be fixed by a master server migration to Steam later.

- If two people start a sandbox at the exact same time, they could end up in a match against each other instead. This will be fixed by a master server migration to Steam later.

Alpha 17 Patch Release v0.17.6

- Construction of multiple Refineries & Cities on same site/well no longer possible

- Unconquerable territories verified and fixed

- Game servers no longer accumulate CPU-consuming artefacts after each match

- Proper validation error instead of server error when drawing very short paths