A very good patch!
What I like most:
The humbled Coronata is back! And this time she means business!
Until now, she had little answer to an Eradica microwaving your fleet. But not anymore! Now she strikes back with vengeance!
A short excerpt from my first game with the Advent Loyalist with the 1.04 patch:
Fleet 1: Advent Loyalist - Level 3 Coronata Class Titan with major battle damage + a few Iconius Guardians + Progenitor Mothership with severe battle damage
Fleet 2: Advent Rebel - Level 5 Eradica Class Titan with medium battle damage
Location: Pirate base - that was just wiped out by the Advent Loyalist when the lone Eradica enters the sector
1. Progenitor Motherships commences retreat
2. Eradica on intercept course
3. Eradica uses chastic burst on the already severly damaged mothership
4. Coronata + Guardians still en route to the Eradica
5. Eradica keeps microwaving the mothership
6. Mothership: Stand by for Phase...... Ahhhhhrg..... transmission lost
7. Eradica comes about determinded to kill the remaining ships aswell.
8. Both Titans open fire.... the Guardians reduce some of the incoming firepower but this is still a fight between a heavily damaged Level 3 Coronata and a medium damaged Level 5 Eradica.
9. Eradica commences microwaving...
10. Coronata charges up Unity Mass...
11: Eradica: Mircowaving.... Microwaving.... WAIT? WTF happened to my shields?
12. Eradica now in range of Suppression Aura...
13. Eradica: Fine... no need to hurry.... I will still enjoy this kill
14. Coronata charges up Unity Mass...
15. On the bridge of the Eradica several yellow warning lights change to red warning lights
16. Coronata just refuses to die...
17: Eradica: Shhhh....... Guardians
18. Coronata charges up Unity Mass...
19. Eradicas hull looks decisive unhealthily...
20. Eradica: I dont see any remaining warning lights that are not bright red.... lets get the hell out of here!
21. Eradica flees the Gravity well to avoid certain destruction.
Their words will burn in the Unity's flames...
No seriously... it makes a lot more fun to play Advent Loyalists if other players have reasons to be afraid of you... the entire Advent Theme is about merciless revenge.... that should somehow be reflected in the game. The change to Unity mass went a long way forward to that end and was a huge step into the right direction. This "Ohh shit!" feeling of other players (like the Advent Rebel above) is a large part of the multiplayer fun factor of the game.
Rework of Unyielding Will! YAY! Awesome work, developers! Thank you very much!
Eradica Titan Buff... it needed it.... alone to compete with the now mighty Coronata. It is still better against larger fleets... something that is underlined with this buff.
Increased Titan cost and build time once destroyed and depending on Level. Wonderful, now you have greatly increased satisfaction when you finally bring down one of those mighty ships.
Well thought out solution for number of fieldable superweapons ,
Game and modding optimization. While I dont mod myself, making it easier/add more options for modders is a BIG "HAVE TO BUY THAT NOW" incentive for me.
New Maps... and quite awesome maps they are!
Stripped to the core balancing - Fantastic!
Pirate raiders despawning after returning to base. That should reduce some lag.
All the bug fixes! You take it for for granted that developers fix their games? It is clear to me then that you have not bought a game from EA for ages. It should go without saying that developers fix the games.... but sadly more often than not this is not the case. And so I feel compelled to praise Ironclad Games and Stardock for this.
Ok, admittedly, this has nothing to do with the patch. Still, I feel that the Steam as a copy protection system is halfway tolerable. I still dont like it, but compared to the incredible shit several other game developers try to force onto you nowadays, its a minor annoyance.
Again, this has nothing to do with the patch, but I want to express my gratitude for still supporting LAN play. Until 1 year ago I was stuck on a terrible internet connection... making any internet gaming a pain in the ass. Besides... nothing like hearing you friend scream bloody murder from across the room when he realizes to late that one of my Marzas made a slight detour to his capital...
Yes, not everything is perfect yet, Vasari Rebels are probably still too powerfull. But we are moving in the right direction and I dont see any issues that cannot be fixed with a few more patches.
Keep up the good work!