Patch Notes

1.4- The Snappy Update

Half of the units are gone now!
All of the units that didn't fill an important role (or one nobody used) are removed. Now, design and balance can focus on the units that actually matter.
Along with this, most of these changes make midgame more dynamic.

Balance

Early Game units were too mobile, so there's been a universal -1 to Sight and -0.5 to Move ranges.
This applies to Builder, Scout, Swordsman, Bowman, and Horseman.
Magic attacks no longer hit buildings. They do, however, hit units in a Bunker.
Barracks now cost 80 Minerals, and Tier 2 structures cost 100.
The midgame Stealth mechanic was awkward, so it's been reworked into a more defined state.

Stealth

Stealthed units include Knifesmen, Ninjas, and anything stealthed by the Laboratory.
A Stealthed unit is invisible, but still affects units' move patterns.
It is also immune to Ranged and Air attacks, only being hit by Melee and Magic.
To subvert this weakness, Stealth units can be detected by a Tower (passive) or a Shooting Range (ability). Detected Stealth units have their location shown, and may be hit by any attack type.

There's also been quite a few Structure changes and additions...

Outpost

Due to the Cannon reworks, there was a missing role in an early game support structure. The Outpost serves this role, giving a 40 Mineral/2 Turn (40HP 15 Attack 25 Healing) structure off the bat.
This should hopefully provide a nice support to Builder Scout skirmishes.

Nexus

Tier 2 was too accessible and invalidated Barracks Units, so we've added a slight commitment to reaching them.
Now, the Nexus can research upgrades for Tier 2 and Tier 3 units! These upgrades cost 75 Minerals/3 Turns and 150 Minerals/4 Turns, respectively.
The latter will likely be reduced to 125 Minerals in the future. This high cost is to keep focus on the part of the game that matters most right now- Midgame.

Adventurer's Guild

Goodbye Guild Leader and Cultist! Their roles simply had too much overlap with existing Tier 2 units. Knife Factories are also gone, since they simply added nothing to the Guild.
Now, Guild only creates Knifesmen and Carriers. This gives it a Crowd Control and support role, generally beating Tank.

Laboratory

Goodbye Necromancer and Skeleton! They were just bad.
Laboratory focuses on Warlock and Pegasus Rider. This provides a focus on single strong units and splash attacks, generally beating Swarm units.
It also has an ability to Stealth any unit for 25 Minerals.

Shooting Range

Goodbye Grenadier! Who really knows what it was used for?
Shooting Range creates Tanks and Rocketmen. These units are specialized in high point damage, beating singular high-cost units.
It also has the Radar Scan ability, providing vision (and Detecting units) in an area for only 10 Minerals.

Armory

Not too many changes here, relatively. Unit HP and defense researches are now located at the Academy.
The Armory Units research now requires the Tier 2 Upgrade.

Academy

The old move/sight/build researches are gone! All Unit ranges are static now.
Instead, the Academy is a defensively specialized building (compared to the offensively specialized Armory).
It can research Unit HP and Defense, and unlock Cannon through research.
After the Tier 2 Upgrade, it can also research Tower, Bunker, and Mortar as the new means of unlocking them.

Tower, Bunker, Moratr

Tower and Cannon were too similar, so now Tower only has 1 (40 Damage) air attack.
Now, Tower has a passive detecting any Stealth units! This range will be shown to the other player as well.
The overall costs were lowered to the 60-70 Mineral range.

1.3- The Vortex Update

Lots of changes in this one! Optimizations behind the scenes, a new building, and many balance changes....

Balance

Laboratory

The Laboratory has definitely been the worst Tier 2 building so far. All of the Lab troops are getting reworks and minor buffs to hopefully help this.
To start out, the Laboratory is getting the Invisibility Spell ability from the Warlock, which now costs 20 Minerals to cast.
The Warlock build time is now down 4 -> 3 turns, and costs 100 -> 90 Minerals. It lost the Invisibility Spell ability, so this should be fair.
The Necromancer's also getting some buffs, with a cost down 70 -> 60 Minerals and an attack range 5 -> 6. The Aura upgrade never saw any use, so it's being removed and we're giving Necromancer Aura a range buff, 6 -> 9. Also, Skeleton attack damage is 20 -> 25.
Finally, introducing the Vortex! Built in 2 Turns/40 Minerals from the Pegasus Rider (which now 30 -> 40 Minerals), the Vortex can store troops in an alternate dimension, allowing any other Vortex to summon them. Try it out!

Guild

The Guild's at a very strong place right now, so these are just tweaks to round out the units.
The Tower is a strong defensive building, so the build time is going from 2 to 3 Turns. Its vision is now reworked, with a base sight range 12 -> 6. In exchange, it now has a range 14 passive that shows the hitbox of any hidden (stealthed or out of vision) units.
The Cultist hasn't seen much love, so its cost is 60 -> 50 Minerals. Also, its Melee attack has been upgraded into a Magic attack! This is balanced out with a damage nerf. Poison damage has gone from 40, -5 (40 damage first turn, 35 next, 30 next, etc) to 40, -10 (40, 30, 20, 10).
Carrier's a versatile and threatening support unit. Its build time is now 2 -> 3 Turns.

Shooting Range

Shooting Range is also quite meta, and will only get better with Lab buffs. Here are some changes to decrease the power of the more degenerate strategies.
Rocketman landmines no longer explode if killed during construction. This reduces Rocketmans's camping abilities.
Increased the reinforcement increment on Mortar. It was too easy to set up and shut down entire portions of maps.

Other

Important:

The Tier 2 -> Tier 3 progression has been reworked! Before, Guild unlocked Fleet Beacon, Lab unlocked Dojo, and Range unlocked Wizard Tower. Now, Guild unlocks Dojo, Lab unlocks Wizard tower, and Range unlocks Fleet Beacon. This lines up the Tier 3's with the Tier 2's, making attack upgrades even more beneficial.
Builder Build Range tech -> Build Range tech (now applies to all Unit build ranges)
Dimensional Rift cost 300 -> 200 Minerals. 300 was insane, and nobody really got to it anyways.

Map Pool

J-Rex has been putting in some extra time on the maps! Runner and Zip have recieved significant revisions.

1.2- Armory Units Update

Balance

The Armory units have been reworked to be more win-conditionish! Each also has a unique attribute.

Axeman

Each unit the Axeman kills restores it 10 HP.

Gunman

After attacking, the Gunman must reload for 1 full turn.
Accordingly, the Gunman's range and damage recieved major boosts!

Lanceman

The Lanceman recieved a new ability: Decisive Stance!
Decisive Stance gives the Lanceman a defensive buff for the turn, halving all incoming damage.
Using Decisive Stance disables Decisive Strike (Lanceman Attack) for the turn, and vice versa.

1.1- Tier 3 Update

Balance

A lot of the Tier 3 (endgame) units were simply too expensive to reasonably use. Their prices and overall stats have been adjusted to give them a better role in the meta.

Bugfixes

This patch irons out many of the bugs present in 1.0.0. Additionally, it (re)introduces texture pack support, including 4 existing packs!

1.0- Website Launch

Launcher

Before this update, everyone had to redownload the game every time it updated. Now, you download a launcher, which should automatically download any updates!

Audio

Base Wars now has a complete soundtrack!! A huge shoutout to Jerry Bear Music for incredible composition on this. (Also, there's a lot more Sound Effects.)

Visuals

A lot of the visuals were clean, but plain. I added some grit to a lot of the backgrounds to give it a more 3D feel. Also, the game itself is 3D now!

Balance

We discovered the Armory Units were absolutely busted. I reduced their health universally; you should be able to kill them eventually.