Hey everyone! We recently pushed out a new update with a few minor changes. We also pushed out another one over a year ago which went undocumented! Oops! I had the patch notes written up for them on my computer, but forgot to actually publish them. For posterity's sake, I decided to put each patch in different sections, starting with the recent one coming now!

PATCH 3

• Adjusted distance scale in the info panel so that all speeds/ranges are 80% lower (the orcs no longer run at 90 mph)
  • This is purely a cosmetic change. The in-game speeds/distances are still the same, it's just that the game-unit to irl-unit conversion is different
• Orcs have much less health (15 -> 8), but move faster (8 m/s -> 12 m/s), attack faster (0.35 sec -> 0.25 sec), and stick closer to the siege machine (will target buildings up to 14 m -> 12 m away)
  • The orcs had so much health that they were offering more value tanking damage than dealing damage, to the point where they were boxing out the shield. The health change was actually supposed to be in the previous patch as compensation for the AI change, but due to a mistake, the health didn't actually change. The damage/speed nerfs were done because the orcs were still overpowered after the health was(n't) changed, but now with a proper health nerf, those nerfs can be reverted (and even made into buffs).
• Shields cost less (3 -> 2)
  • Decreasing the shields' health to 12 in the first patch was a pretty big nerf, and with the motor being reworked to a 3-cost module, it seems fitting to make the shield a lower cost item. The shield is a support item, so this change will allow you to fit more other components while still having a good health pool.
• Siege machine turns 20% slower
  • The motor had a problem where if you had a lot of them, you'd end up blowing past certain sections of the level before the towers even had a chance to hit you. This happens with only a few motors, so it'd be hard to directly nerf the motor to prevent this without gutting it. Instead, I adjusted the turn speed so that there'd be a higher "minimum" time where the siege machine is vulnerable to projectiles, which shouldn't impact heavy shield/damage builds that much, but should make motor builds require more defense.
• Arrow Tower has less health (50 -> 40)
  • This is mainly a buff to the crossbow. The main draw of the crossbow is that you can pick and choose which towers to eliminate and snipe them before they rack up too much damage. In practice, it took too many shots to take down a tower like this for it to be worth it if you're only running a small number of bows. Since arrow towers would be the main target for the crossbow, that had its health nerfed.
• Autobows now prioritize damaged towers, but have less range (13 m -> 10 m)
  • In the previous patch, the orcs got a consistency change which made them swarm a single tower until that tower was destroyed before they would retarget. This made them better with lower numbers of orcs, so I wanted to bring a similar change to the autobows so they'd also be better at lower numbers. Now it's easier to get value out of them without having to stack a lot of them, but to compensate they get another range nerf.
• Increased projectile speed for crossbows (16 m/s -> 30 m/s) and autobows (16 m/s -> 20 m/s)

This was a relatively minor patch, generally meant to move power away from stacking lots of a single module and more towards including different modules with fewer copies each. These changes were essentially a response to the previous patch, which can be found below.

PATCH 2

Workshop Overhaul

The workshop was completely rewritten, and now has a lot more QOL features for when you're building the siege machine.

• When dragging modules, the place the module will snap to is highlighted. This highlight turns red if the position is invalid.
• If the module is off the grid when it's released, it will snap to the closest on-grid position available.
• Module setup is restored every time you enter the workshop (no more restarting from scratch).
• Added an info panel that describes each module in more detail, as well as the stats of each of them
• The library turns into a trash bin when holding a module, allowing you to easily delete them
  • It was already possible to delete a module by right-clicking it after it was placed, but it was never communicated in-game, so we added this more intuitive system.
• Shield is automatically rotated based on what side it's placed on.
• Orc Attack Party can be rotated with 'R'.
• Shield and OAP copies are removed due to rotation change, significantly reducing clutter.
• OAP collision box adjusted to accurately reflect its sprite (it no longer takes up the middle slot).
• The cockpit is placed by default
  • It is still possible to delete the cockpit or add multiple of it
• Now supports both click and drag (click once to pick up, click again to place) and hold and drag (click to pick up, release to place)
• When dragging a module, it can now be reverted back to its original position by right-clicking.
  • If a module was dragged from the library and hasn't yet been placed in the grid, it will instead be deleted.

Combat QOL/Polish

The main levels also had a problem where it was difficult to figure out what was going on, as there was very little feedback for anything. The health bars help a decent amount (they actually informed a lot of the balance changes in the previous patch), but adding extra effects can help clearly show what's happening.

• All towers and entities flash red when damaged
• Added sfx when a tower or the siege machine is damaged/destroyed
  • The sfx is different between towers and the siege machine so it's clear what's getting damaged
• You can preview levels before playing them
  • You can enter the workshop from the preview screen to tailor your build to the upcoming level

Balancing

• Orcs all swarm around the same tower and will always target towers close to the siege machine, but move 25% slower and attack slower (0.3 sec -> 0.35 sec)
  • The previous changes put the orcs in a good place power-wise, but they were still inconsistent. They all had separate AI, so sometimes they'd swarm around a tower and quickly take it down, as they were meant to do, but other times they'd target different towers, splitting up and being much less effective. They'd also often go on a rampage far away from the siege machine after a while, leaving it with little protection. This new AI change helps make them much more consistent, but they had to be toned back as a result to stop them from destroying all of the towers for free.
• Autobows have 60% more range, and instead of multiple autobows decreasing range, they instead target different towers (max 1 bow per tower), and cost less (3 -> 2)
  • It was difficult figuring out how to balance this, as its power would be dramatically influenced by how many copies were placed in the machine, much more than any other module. If it was balanced around the maximum amount you could put in the machine, it would be almost useless with fewer bows. If it was balanced around fewer bows, it would be way too powerful with max bows. The previous patch added decreasing range for each bow to try to mitigate it, but it was clunky and didn't work very well, and it was left underpowered. Instead, making the autobows target different towers ensures that they wouldn't be too fast at destroying towers when stacked, so the individual autobows can be buffed more. 
• Motors provide twice the movement speed buff, but cost more (2 -> 3)
  • The motor was slightly underpowered compared to the shield, and it would be good to have a more expensive support option, so this knocks out 2 birds with 1 stone.
• Magic towers [the ones with the AOE attack] attack more often (2 sec -> 1.4 sec) but deal less damage (4 -> 3)
  • Even after the buff in the previous patch, they still felt too inconsistent, with the siege machine frequently speeding past it without taking damage. The DPS was fine, so it's kept about the same, but the attack speed was increased to make it more consistent.
• Level 2 adjusted to have less downtime and not have a chance of suddenly nuking your health
• Level 3 adjusted to be harder
• Level 4 adjusted to be more fair