WHAT IS LINE WAR?

LINE WAR is a Strategy Video Game but unlike many other games, it has elements from a large number of subgenres. At its core, LINE WAR is a Real-Time Strategy game but it also has the grand strategy of a War Game, the expansion and territory control of a 4X, artificial intelligence for unit battles from an Auto Battler, and a absence of hero unit concepts and tactical manouvers of a Real-Time Tactics game.

Real-Time Strategy
4X
War Game
Real-Time Tactics

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KEY FEATURES

Our ambition is to create an RTS-like game that addresses some of the common problems facing many other games in the genre. We want to remove the steep learning curve and eliminate the need of micro-management.

STRATEGY

LINE WAR has a great depth of strategy. You have to plan, execute, and adapt your strategy to defeat your opponent.

EFFICIENT EXECUTION

Efficient ways for the player to execute a strategy through visual commands. Actions Per Minute (APM) is not important.

REPLAYABILITY & LONGEVITY

Worlds are randomly generated for an infinite amount of variation, yet a single world also has limitless replayability.

FAMILIAR UNITS

LINE WAR dares to break the trend and has only one race with familiar units to widen the audience and ease the learning curve.

ASYMMETRIC WORLDS

Procedurally generated worlds with asymmetric territory and resource distribution. Balance is provided through territory "picking phase".

E-SPORT ORIENTED

Spectator friendly game with overview, familiar units, and visual commands that makes it easy for spectators to follow along.

ROAD MAP

We have a lot of exciting items in our roadmap as we go forward:

  Teams & FFA

Released 2022-12-28

According to a survey held in March 2022, this is the most anticipated feature of all with a whopping 56,1% of respondents indicating a desire to play on teams or in chaotic FFA matches. These new playing modes introduce an interesting design challenge on how to solve the picking phase for more than 2 players. Ideas anyone?

  • 2 vs 2
  • 3 vs 3
  • Free for all
Release 35
Q3 2022

  The Aircraft Carrier

Released 2023-03-08

A floating airbase with a capacity of 2 small aircraft (Helicopter, Interceptor, Striker). The developers have been looking forward to adding this unit ever since the release of Alpha 13 - Top Gun back in June 2020.

  • Health 320 HP
  • Speed 0,70
  • Production cost 96
  • Energy consumption 8 / min
Release 36
Q3 2022

Skirmish AI

The first step on the path to a full single-player experience, and by far the most requested feature since Line War's release.

The AI model that we are developing builds on clustering algorithms that provides the AI with accumulating knowledge of its own and hostile units, structures, geography, and how they relate to each other. It plays by the same rules as human players and, of course, it takes the fog of war and visibility into account. There is a lot of development work yet to be done and we are not aiming to rush anything out before we believe it offers a sufficient level of quality that can be expected by an AI opponent.

Although our current focus is to build a skirmish AI that plays matches, we can re-use the same technology for single-player mission-based content and community-created challenges.

  • 1 vs 1 single-player Skirmish AI
  • Co-op vs Skirmish AI (bonus)
  • New handicap system for both humans and AI (also enabling fair assymetric teams, such as 1v2)
Release 37
~ Q4 2023 (ETA)

Technologies

We hope that by introducing many distinct technologies to the game, players will be able to customize their armies in-game. We already see players that follow a very clear doctrine and unit composition from one match to another, almost as if the player was playing another "faction". Imagine for such players to be able to focus research on these units to give that doctrine/playing style an even greater bonus.

Here's an excerpt from among 25 ~ 30 planned technologies:

Submarine cargo-hold

Room for 1 Infantry or 1 Commando. Enables stealthy infiltration of territory.

Tomahawk missile

Range 8 missile fired from the Cruiser dealing high impact damage but at long intervals (attrition).

Infantry Fighting Vehicle

Turns the Tank into an IFV with a cargo-hold of 1 Infantry or 1 Commando.

Towing of Artillery

Makes it possible for Tanks to tow Artillery. Could be used for retreats or surprise deployments in unsuspected locations.

Engineering team

Makes Infantry dig entrenchments 50% faster, potential for units of other types to jump into, once finished.

Faster construction

Makes building of all Structures 50% faster. For quick establishment of proxy bases, given that sufficient funds have been saved beforehand.

Release 38
Future

E-sports & Season Finals

Line War was created with e-sports in mind from day one. We know from experience that matches can be very interesting to watch from an observer's perspective. The average duration of a match is approximately 35 min. We want each season to end with live-streamed finals, proposedly in a round-of-32/double elimination format. We are hooking up with commentators and collaborators.

We also intend to find a gaming arena partner, such as SPACE (Stockholm). Here, global finals could be held on a yearly basis.

Continuous

Planned Features

The game has yet to see its fullest potential! Many more features have been planned all along and most of them can be found in the original Game Design Document. Take a look at this:

Advanced World Economics

A slightly more complex, 4X-like world economy with dynamic trade-routes, growing cities and new resources. Less emphasis on pre-defined locations.

Statistics & Graphs

Detailed end-of-match statistics including graphs for important figures, such as income and size of armed forces.

Released 2022-12-28

Next Gen Command System

We have plenty of ideas on how to make the command system more expressive, efficient and lean.

Orbital Warfare

Rocket gets accompanied by Satellites, Suncatchers and Orbital Killers, produced at the familiar Launchpad.

Capture Buildings

Possibility to capture an enemy building, not just destroy it.

Observer application

Watch a live match with support for switching perspective and more.

More Defend Options

Switch between a light and dense Defend directive. Zig-zag entrenchments and better chances for reinforcements to arrive in time.

World Improvements

Seamless west/east cylindrical worlds, voting, favourites, metadata, visual hints.

Infrastructure

Build Roads, Bridges, Fortifications, Coastal Turrets, or dig Canals.

Espionage

Train Spies and assign them to sabotage-, intelligence- or counter-espionage missions.

Shallow Waters

Not traversable by the Cruiser and Aircraft Carrier. Degraded stealth for Submarines.

Victory Conditions

Based on 80% territory ownership. Players get notified when any player is close to a territorial victory.

Improved AI

Smarter unit micro-decisions, flowfield pathfinding, keeping optimal distance for ranged fighters etc.

Operations

Use the F5 through F8 keys to record an Operation (which is basically just a grouping of commands).

Future

The Future of Line War

Studio Centurion is committed to the development of this game for years to come!

We have a clear re-investment strategy and an ambition to fully develop and complete the game according to the original Game Design Document. Our final goal is to have an all-inclusive AA- or AAA product with single-player campaigns. At this stage, LW will already be an established player in the e-sports segment.

Help us in making Line War the greatest strategy game of the decade! Buy or wishlist the game on Steam at: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1309610/Line_War

Future

RELEASE NOTES

Release 36 - Patch 2

2023-08-30

Game Balance

  • Infantry speed 0.40 -> 0.41
  • Infantry rifle damage 3.6 -> 3.8
  • Commando speed 0.44 -> 0.46
  • Commando production cost 30 -> 28
  • Tank firepower 8.4 -> 7.8 (-7.1%)
  • Tank HP 210 -> 200
  • SAM surface cannon range 2.5 -> 2.0
  • Helicopter speed 1.4 -> 1.3
  • Interceptor AA cannon damage 8 -> 10
  • Interceptor HP 135 -> 150
  • Interceptor taxiing speed 1.2 -> 1.6
  • Striker AA cannon damage 8 -> 10
  • Striker speed 2.2 -> 2.3
  • Striker AS cannon damage 12 -> 10
  • Striker AS missile damage 17 -> 20
  • Striker AS missile range 7.0 -> 7.5
  • Transport Jet inter-airbase transfer cargo capacity 2 -> 4
  • Bomber energy consumption 6.5 -> 6.8
  • Destroyer depth charge damage 11 -> 12
  • Missile ship HP 150 -> 140
  • Entrenched unit absolute range bonus +0.3 -> +0.7
  • Entrenched unit firepower bonus 20% -> 10%
  • Entrenched unit armor bonus 30% -> 40%
  • Entrenched unit vulnerable rear arc 90 degree -> 120 degree
  • Haste speed energy consumption +70% -> +100%
  • Launchpad construction time 144 s -> 120 s
  • Rocket production time 113 s -> 137 s
  • Rocket HP 270 -> 230
  • Rocket launch energy cost 20 -> 40
  • Airstrip construction cost 220 -> 200
  • Base detection of solitaire land units (non-tank) or structures now enough to reveal point-blank Commandos, except if in a forest or mountain

Release 36 - Patch 1

2023-03-11

Game Balance

  • Interceptor targeting now slightly favoring damaged air units
  • Bomber production cost 72 => 75
  • Bomber sight as Helicopter

Bug fixes

  • Add Team and Browse Lobbies buttons enabled in in lobby for non-owners
  • Interceptors only emitting 4 Sidewinder launch-effects despite 6 actual gameplay hits being registered
  • Unable to fire a completed Rocket
  • Unbuildable Cities
  • Transport Jets doing a 2nd circle when dropping Commandos on a path command
  • Players with more than 1000 replays cannot see new replays in the browse window
  • Tools for monitoring ghost lobbies

Release 36 - Aircraft Carrier

2023-03-07

Aircraft Carrier

Mobile airbase with a capacity of 3 aircraft.

Audio

  • New UI audio for events in lobby and chats - if game is out of focus, you know when someone joins lobby
  • Global volume control in settings
  • Independent volume control of menu music and in-game music
  • Independent volume control of in-game, UI, and ambience sound effects
  • Audio listener is better placed in the world depending on what camera is showing

Camera Control

  • Camera zooming now zooms to proper extents without jittering
  • Added strategic overview camera mode in game, zoom past max distance or press Slash key to toggle
  • Increased zoom extents allowing closeups
  • Zoom now moves camera forwards and backwards and changes field of view (instead of just altering field-of-view)
  • Zooming combines camera  movement, field-of-view and tilting at different distances
  • Camera extent perfectly aligns with navigable areas of the map in north and south
  • Improved settings for camera zoom, zoom sensitivity, and panning speed
  • Overview camera always show special sites icons in-game, replay, and lobby
  • Improved middle-mouse click-drag panning of map for better mouse pointer accuracy
  • Improved zoom-to-mouse-pointer handling
  • Added automated smooth camera panning over time in replays for content creation (see keyboard legend)
  • Free-flight camera mode added to replays

Graphics

  • Shadows casting on units and structures
  • Smoothing enabled for many units and structures
  • Reflective and smoothness settings for units now gives them a higher quality look
  • Fixed layer sorting, structures, units, commands, territory border, water are now sorted correctly
  • Improved trees, corrected normal maps, enlarged, solidified
  • Ambient occlusion enabled
  • Improved shadow quality with cascading on Very High setting
  • Added Subpixel Morphological Anti-aliasing SMAA
    (if you want antialiasing under water)
  • Improved VSync and framerate handling to avoid GPUs running at full speed
  • Opacity control for borders, icons, commands, and command decorations
  • Underwater bubbles and torpedo trails improved and always visible
  • Improved water trail visuals for ships
  • Ship splashes are now arced in direction of travel instead of circles
  • Added under-water bubbles for sunken ships and debris
  • Added under-water mesh and particles for energy wells at sea
  • Added energy icon over energy wells to make them easier to find
  • All aircraft now have rigidbody crash animations as they break apart and crash on land or at sea
  • Improved water splashes for debris and crashing aircraft
  • Replaced special sites icons in overview with new colorful ones
  • New Aircraft Carrier unit mesh
  • Higher wrapped texture-based damage on units and structures
  • Changed to neutral color rotor blades on helicopters - they always had blue tips before
  • Improved mountain-based structures, should never have mountains penetrating airports any longer
  • Improved deforestation masks for structures and units to make them easier to see in forests
  • Added normal-based slope shading for mountains to compensate for removed terrain shadowcasting
  • Increased forest tree density
  • New unit production animations - they don't penetrate buildings or fling parts at ridiculous distance
  • Removed tesselation for territory borders as it had minimal impact and caused graphic artifacts

Lobby

  • World seed favorites
  • World seed voting
  • World seed history
  • Drawing/collaboration/inspection features on the world of the lobby
  • Full owner editing support for Public lobbies
  • Public lobby means passive hosting only (no more auto-merge)
  • Using 3 600 sec duration for lobby hosting (instead of silent termination)
  • Full lobby browser support in lobby (i.e. manually connecting to another lobby as a party)
  • Improved lobby design with more intuitive management of teams and players
  • New in-game camera mode in Lobby view allowing zooming and toggle between tilt and overview
  • Tab key toggles full screen and windowed map view
  • Navigation test tool (Q key) - ensure that narrow straits can be navigated through
  • Air range overlay tool (W key) - shows the ranges of short, mid, and long range aircraft
  • Rocket range overlay tool (E key) - shows the range of rockets from launchpads
  • Energy pipeline range overlay tool (R key) - shows maximum range of an energy pipeline connection
  • Vote Up / Vote Down buttons to help lobby owner decide which map to player
  • World favorites functionality with screenshots of world seeds
  • World seed history with vote statistics
  • New lobby browser from within a lobby to merge capability to compatible lobbies
  • GeoSignal now possible to send in lobby

Lobby browser

  • More information in the list
  • Also lists ongoing matches

Performance

  • Graphics jobs enabled to offload graphics onto separate thread for improved client performance
  • GPU instancing for many of the objects
  • Improved VSync-handling to avoid running at unnecessary high framerates
  • Removed shadowcasting for terrain - it had minimal visual effect for millions of triangles
  • Removed trees from west and east no-go zones

Replays

  • Better backward compatibility
  • Paging when # of replays grow beyond 1000
  • The overview mode (Slash key or zoom out past max zoom) with territory control highlighting
  • F key toggles fog-of-war modes between on, off, and hybrid
  • New hybrid fog-of-war mode showing the shading of what a player can see, but shows all units and structures
  • Space key toggles between player views
  • 1-8 keys selects specific players
  • Z key activates the new free flight camera mode (useful for content creation)
  • C key toggles commands from own (default), none, and all players
  • V key toggles command routes from none (default), player view (as in game), and all players
  • T key toggles time and messages (useful for content creation)
  • R key toggles mouse cursor visibility (useful for content creation)
  • U key toggles UI (useful for content creation)
  • Comma (,) key and Period (.) key sets start and end points for smooth camera panning
  • Shift 1-0 pans camera smoothly between start and end points set with comma and period keys

Team

  • Spectate mode when defeated with 1 or more allies still alive

Tutorials

  • 100 new tutorials covering Basic, Intermediate, Advanced techniques
  • Strategic tutorials added
  • Improved tutorial navigation

Settings

  • Settings are always accessible through F10 in any game state
  • New settings system with categorized and paged settings
  • New hints in settings to explain what settings do
  • Reset button for all settings to restore to default setting
  • Quality presets from Lowest to Ultra balancing performance and visuals
  • New Audio controls to independently control global in-game and menu music, menu ambiences, and sound effects
  • Replay default settings
  • Prepared pages and information about coming keyboard remapping and localization
  • New player count and status dropdown at the top in menu and lobby screens
  • Settings are context based and only visible if they can be modified in combination with others

UI

  • Dialog windows and modals improved for consistency
  • UI animations
  • New disconnect and player states in the team view in-game
  • Picking guide moved to right side to not overlap players
  • Picking guide hides older steps to not run out of screen-space
  • New higher quality energy and capital icons
  • New icons special sites in overview modes
  • Improved tool-tip appearance and placements
  • Added confirmation dialog to resign - no more accidental resigns
  • Added confirmation dialog to leaving lobby
  • Improved consistency of Esc-key to back out of everything behavior
  • New Discord information to guide new players to discord to make friends and find players

Command Line World Image Exporter

Use command-line argument to batch export screenshots of world seeds.

Usage: LineWarClient.exe -batchmode -export-world -seed <seed>

Required parameters:
-export-worldExports world(s) as an image file(s)
-seed <seed(s)>Specifies which seed(s) to export
e.g. -seed 9 or -seed 9,10,11 or -seed 1-1000
Optional Parameters:
-path <path>Specifies path to write images to
e.g. -path "c:\An Existing Directory"
default path is %appdata%..\LocalLow\Studio Centurion AB\Line War"
-resolution <WxH>Specifies resolution of image file
e.g -resolution 3840x2160
default is 1920x1080
-jpgForces JPG image instead of PNG
-hide-overlayHides overlay icons
-hide-seedHides seed overlay in top-left corner
-batchmodeUnity parameter to run silent instead of launching game

 Resulting images will be named <seed>.png, e.g. 9.png

 A json-metadata file is written named <seed>.txt containing information about the world

 A log file is written <timestamp>.txt with information about time taken to generate each seed

Misc

  • Showing number of Line War players currently online
  • Client offline mode supporting replays, tutorials & sandbox
  • Brand new settings dialog giving granular control

Gameplay

  • Display names of allied players in sharing dialog
  • Major tooltip overhaul (incl lobby world)

Bugs

  • Better AFK detection reducing the risk of "lobby kidnapping"
  • Very long public lobby host/search process (it used to end silently after X minutes, now it's 1 hour with a clear ending)
  • Adding unit to production queue cancels current unit production
  • 16-bit integer (short) causes overflow in summary
  • Tutorial popup not showing when playing for the first time
  • Bypass password if through invite
  • Unit production animations now accurately show what is being produced as producers go in and out of fog-of-war
  • Ships now always sink properly instead of sometimes getting stuck at the surface
  • Many lobby management bugs addressed with quirky UI and lobby management issues
  • Enemy command routes and artifacts removed in replay toggling
  • Capping VSync steps (preferred) or setting target frame rate now reduces framerate to avoid overload

Game balance

  • Territory income 12 => 10
  • Slightly less probability of spawning > 5 Cities
  • Slightly decreased max in randomization-range for conquerable sea territories
  • Compensate map eco loss of above with
    • Industries per City (3,3) => (2,5)
    • Industries further away from City
    • Max Towns 12 => 15
    • 20% increase of conquerable water territories
  • Bomber never drops two bombs on a single target in a single flyover
  • Bomber speed cruise 2.1 => 2.35
  • Bomber bombing speed 70% of cruise speed
  • Bomber bombs 23 x 10 => 19 x 12
  • Bomber HP 150 => 145
  • Bomber AA priority slightly increased
  • Interceptor missile count 4 => 6
  • Interceptor AA cannon count 8 => 6
  • Defender's Grenade bonus 15% => 25%
  • Defender's range bonus 0.2 => 0.3 (absolute)
  • Rocket blastwave direction taken into account for entrenched units (90 degree rear sector means zero armor bonus)
  • Tank production cost 50 => 52
  • Tank conquer rate 7 => 6.2
  • Infantry production cost 17 => 18
  • Infantry speed 0.39 => 0.40
  • Infantry and Commando buffs
    • Forest firepower 10% => 20%
    • Forest armor 10% => 20%
  • 4% lower energy consumption for sea units (now same as tanks)
  • Energy consumption for units in combat is always 25% even if not moving
  • Entrenching 40% faster
  • Helicopter HP 125 => 135

Release 35 - Teams & FFA

2022-12-28

Teams

Major update with gameplay of up to 8 participants including asymmetric teamplay. Examples: 2v2, 3v3, 2v2v2, 3v2 and 4v4.

FFA mode with up to 8 players

Lone survivor mode.

Revised Picking Phase

The Territory Picking Phase has been updated to support the new team modes. The new picking phase lets players select "Zones of Interest" where they would like to start. When there are conflicts additional rounds will let players continue to pick zones until there are enough territories for players to start in. During the final picking phase you select one or more adjacent territories that you will control when the match starts. A new picking guide UI has been introduced to guide you through the process and new tutorials will come to help you understand this better.

Detailed match summaries

After a match, the end screen has been updated with graphs and more team / player statistics.

Replay updates

When you watch replays, they will now end up on the match end screen and include all the statistics and graphs.

New multiplayer lobby

Before you start a new match you will enter a newly created lobby system. You can create, browse, or automatically find lobbies. Use the PLAY button to find matches, or use CREATE to create a custom private or public lobby that can be configured as you wish.

Unranked modes

All other team and FFA modes are currently unranked - no need to worry about wins or losses. Have fun! 🙂

Balance changes

  • Infantry territory conquering rate 2 -> 2.5 (25%)
  • Commando territory conquering rate 4 -> 4.2 (5%)
  • Commando HP 90 -> 80 (-11%)
  • SAM/Missile Ship AA cannon damage 10 -> 9 (-10%)
  • SAM/Missile Ship missile targeting buff (now targets the weakest unit)
  • Bomber HP 135 -> 150 (11%)

Release 34 - Patch 13

2022-08-29

Bug fixes

  • Timeout error message displayed upon successful matchmaking: Timeout occurred when waiting for the lobby owner to assign a game server.

Release 34 - Patch 12

2022-08-24

Bug fixes

  • Air units flying non-stop in circles
  • Unplaceable eco-sites
  • Infantry animated as running even when not Hasting

Game Balance

  • Hellfire and Maverick damage vs Riflemen -20% ⇒ -15%
  • Air units energy consumption (in terms of production cost) 10% ⇒ 9%
  • Infantry/Commandos capping efficiency reduced by 5%
  • Tank production cost 52 ⇒ 50

Release 34 - Patch 11

2022-07-21

Game Balance

  • Entrenched units 15% extra armor vs Grenade
    Defending units (whether it's Artillery or any other land unit type) will hold out from incoming Grenade attacks (Artillery/Destroyer/Missile Ship/Cruiser) for much longer. Static, digged-in coastal Artillery defense will pose a serious threshold to enemy Cruisers. Artillery/SAM-blobs will advance slower against prepared defenders.
  • Entrenched units weapon range buff +0.2 (absolute)
    Increases the chance of neighbouring comrades being within range of an enemy. Increases the probability of multiple entrenched Artillery being within range of free-moving, engaging enemy Artillery.
  • Infantry speed buff 3.7 ⇒ 3.9 (5.4%)
    It's hard to see any drawbacks with a faster moving Infantry: More agile anti-Tank/anti-Commando response, faster territory cap, general feel of the game speed as being faster, higher chance of outpacing kiting SAMs, and last but not least, higher survivability when assaulting Artillery/SAM blobs.
  • Hellfire and Maverick damage nerf vs Riflemen -20%
    The Hellfire (Helicopter) and Maverick (Striker) weapons gets a target-exclusive nerf vs Riflemen. Takes away some of the Strikers and Helicopter squadrons capability to act as a "cleanup party" vs stray Riflemen without SAM protection. Indirectly buffs the Bomber. Also note: Heli/Striker Cannon performance vs Riflemen is NOT modified but stays the same.
  • SAM/MissileShip Missile range buff 8.0 ⇒ 9.0 (12.5%)
    Increases the survivability of SAM "staying in the back". Remember the Missile only fires every 4th second, so it's the "weak" weapon that gets the buff, not the Cannon.
  • Artillery Grenade VS Land nerf 3.6 ⇒ 3.4 (-5.5%)
    The simple solution to nerfing the blob, as it affects all artillery units participating in the blob.  
  • Helicopter HP buff 120 ⇒ 125
    Compensation for 5 above.
  • Air units energy consumption nerf 8,3% ⇒ 10% of production cost
    Air units in general have been too energy efficient in relation to their great speed. They now consume 10% more energy per minute (in terms of production cost) as compared to 8.3% for all other energy consuming units.
  • Interceptor airbase taxiing speed buff 0.6 ⇒ 1.2 (100%)
    Faster response time for Interceptor take-offs.
  • Interceptor Cannon VS Surface damage buff 9 ⇒ 10
    Improving versatility.

Release 34 - Patch 9

2022-06-17

Better client- and server logging for network related events. Various replay fixes, most notably one that protects the server from errors during scene transitions.

Release 34 - Patch 8

2022-06-15

This is released as a minor version but behind the scenes we have done a major upgrade to replace the entire netcode and Unity version. This should hopefully provide a more stable connection for those who have experienced occasional timeouts.

  • New network transport library (total replacement)
  • New cloud-based replays (no need to wait for replay download after a match, replays are automatically available after a match)
  • New connections indicator showing if a connection is unstable
  • New "Create/Join Lobby" feature, you can create a lobby and copy/paste the name for someone else to join
  • Improved chat, you can chat in Select World, Game, and End Screen with chat history and timestamps.
  • Performance improvements for modern GPUs

Release 34 - Patch 7

2022-05-11

Game balance patch only.

Game Balance

  • Increase Striker AS damage reliance on cannon. This will take away the edge of the lethal first-strike Maverick attack against AA and more energy will be required to release the full payload (which stays the same). Non-AA surface units will be given more opportunities to return fire.
    • Striker AS missile 20 ⇒ 17 (- 12 payload)
    • Striker AS cannon 10 ⇒ 12 (+ 12 payload)
  • Interceptor AA role more clear. Interceptor is slightly more versatile.
    • Interceptor AA missile 15 ⇒ 18 (+ 12 payload)
    • Interceptor AS cannon 8 ⇒ 9 (+ 6 payload)
  • Reduces the Artillery blob reaction time to counter attacks.
    • Artillery deployment duration nerf 3.0 ⇒ 3.3
  • The completed entrenchment becomes almost an "investment" in defense. More flexible defense now that you can afford to abandon entrenchments, do battle in some other place and then return, without them getting lost in the meantime.
    • Entrench cooldown 60 ⇒ 120
  • Submarines get a lethal first strike but can not (under normal circumstances) stay and do regular battle afterwards. When and why you should reveal the very presence of your Submarines becomes a hard strategic choice.
    • Torpedo damage 15 ⇒ 25
    • Torpedo cooldown 3 ⇒ 6
    • Speed 0.70 ⇒ 0.65
  • The Destroyer should be a fast and capable attack ship. In combination with 5) - will no longer have much to fear from Submarines in head-to-head combat.
    • Grenade damage 3.0 ⇒ 3.5
    • Depth charge damage 10 ⇒ 11
  • Army backbone Infantry gets a very minor speed increase. Especially important vs Artillery.
    • Speed 0.36 ⇒ 0.37

Alpha 34 - Patch 6

2022-05-10

New matchmaking option “Prioritize good match” that performs a narrower search with respect to opponent rank.

Alpha 34 - Prepping

2022-04-17

Various bug fixes and server related issues.

Alpha 33 - Hotchpotch

2022-04-03

Various bug fixes and other tasks related to the coming release.

Self destruction (Game)

Self-destruction of a building no longer requires the combination of issuing a Target command and keeping units around. Now, all you need is to select the desired buildings and press BACKSPACE to initiate the self-destruction process. Canceling is possible for the duration of a 12 second grace period, by hitting BACKSPACE again.

Alpha 32 - Perfect Match

2022-03-16

Proper skill-based matchmaking.

Alpha 31 - Steam Next Fest

2022-02-27

Server hosting, scalability and other preparations for the Steam Next Fest.

Alpha 30 - Tutorials

2022-02-07

In-game video player for tutorials. Various bug fixes.

Alpha 29 - Patch 3

2022-01-12

Visible attraction zones (UX, Visuals)

The actual zone of attraction surrounding any command has now been made visible. The zone is only visible for selected commands. If multiple commands are selected at the same time, a union of all zones is displayed. Commands for which the concept of an attraction zone is not applicable, will not display a zone.

Balance changes

  • Tank production cost 48 ⇒ 52

Alpha 29 - Patch 2

2021-12-12

Forest and Mountain (Game, Visuals)

Replacing trees with actual tree models to replace the placeholder forests we had before. There is now a mix of conifer and deciduous trees based on latitude and they are snow covered in the snow regions. They're also animated and troops within forests suppress the trees so the units are visible better (unless fully concealed to the enemy of course). Also there are new distribution patterns for mountains and trees to make them less "ketchup" like and more likely to produce mountain ranges.

Behavior at Move destinations (AI)

Small freedom of movement allowed for units arriving at a Line+Move or Point+Move, so that units help each other in close combat.

Interceptor Target area behavior (AI)

Interceptors now chase and fire at flying enemies even if assigned to a Target command, provided that the action takes place in the target’s vicinity.

Balance changes

  • Launchpad cost 528 ⇒ 500
  • Launchpad production rate 120 ⇒ 143
  • Rocket cost 360 ⇒ 500
  • LandingCraft HP 120 ⇒ 110
  • Ensuring minimum, non-negligable Haste bonus for units travelling in Forests or Mountains

Alpha 29 - Patch 1

2021-11-25

Territory conquest (UX, Visuals)

  • A pie chart is now drawn at a territory’s centroid while it is being conquered, indicating which player currently has influence there.
  • A flag of player color will be shown on islands and peninsulas with mostly coastlines to indicate player control.
  • Territory boundaries have been reduced again in luminance and along shores due to over-powering and overlaying units, structures, and visuals.

Territory ownership-dependant terrain speed penalty (Game)

The penalty associated with travelling through rough terrain is now dependent on whether you control the territory or not.

Terrain

Uncontrolled  territory

Controlled  territory

Forest

30%

18%

Forest (Tank)

40%

24%

Mountain

50%

30%

Mountain (Tank)

60%

36%

Improved behaviour of reinforcements (AI)

Reinforcements standing ready behind a defense line could cause confusion and disarray among the ranks, with units abandoning their digged-in positions losing that precious defense bonus as a consequence.

Balance changes

  • Abandoned entrenchment deterioration cooldown 15s ⇒ 60s (higher probability of entrenchment to remain intact when reinforcements arrive)
  • Switching Line-directive does not immediately remove entrenchments (switch to Engage+Haste to take care of a few unguarded Artillery bombarding the line, then switch back to Defend)
  • Increased Haste energy consumption 60% ⇒ 70%
  • Bombers are now “high-altitude”, targetable by Missiles and Air-Air weapons only

Bug fixes

  • Relocating a command caused units to loose speed
  • Units not retreating under some circumstances, despite being assigned to a Move command in a direction opposite of enemy
  • Units not prioritizing firing at a Target:ed structure
  • Units not blocking enemy unit passage under some circumstances

Alpha 29 - Usability

2021-10-27

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

2021-10-07

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

2021-09-22

Balance changes (Game)

# Change Justification
1 General detection nerf for all units Less likely for non-detectors (when in small numbers) to be able to see stealthy enemy units, even at point-blank range.
2 Major helicopter sight and detection nerf Helicopters should not be able to contribute much in the search for stealthy units.
3 Commando, Destroyer and Interceptor sight and detection buff Probably the last sight buff for the 3 “detectors”.
4 Refinery energy output buff 18‌‌‌‌ → 24 The energy model might have been a bit too restrictive. Let’s give this a try.
5 Airstrip capacity 5 → 4 This is not a nerf. General airstrip capacity efficiency vis a vis other figures stays the same
6 Non-investment structure construction time buff -20% It was simply too slow. Seeks to remedy the feeling that, for example, building a shipyard and then a troopship to cross the sea was “too far away” timewise. Could also speed up the early game somewhat.
7 Non-investment structure construction cost buff -20% This is important! Note that the price goes down but the production capacity stays the same. This means that production in general is now more affordable, both in terms of construction cost and upkeep.
8 More conquerable sea territories Justification
9 More trade routes on sea maps Justification

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

2021-09-22

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

2021-09-10

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

2021-08-30

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

2021-08-23

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

2021-07-16

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

2021-06-29

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

2021-06-17

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

2021-06-16

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

2021-06-14

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

2021-06-10

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

2021-06-09

Bug Fixes Only

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

Alpha 21 - Essentials Part II

2021-06-08

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

2021-05-04

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

2021-03-23

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

2021-10-01

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

2020-12-16

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

2020-10-15

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