[For those lacking context in retrospect, this was posted as an April fools goof.]

Unfortunately, the Escalation 2.75 update has been put on hold due to our lead designer, Callum, being attacked by a Kangaroo. In his absence, our intern has stepped in to take over development on Escalation. This is his first update. 


Updated Map Pool

The automatch map pool has been updated to better reflect the preferences of our players. Below is the season 3 map pool.

• Fast and Furious
• Knife Fight

Balance

Artillery Post

The Artillery Post was overperforming due to its extremely long range. We are lowering its range to better balance it for its cost

• Range reduced from 3000 to 250
• Artillery Post renamed to Post

Eye of Darkness

The Eye of Darkness Juggernaut was underperforming, so we are giving it some additional mobility

• Movement speed increased from 62 to 500
• Can now fly

Orbital Strike & Antimatter Detonation

To make the endgame more exciting, and to simulate an interstellar cold war crisis, we've made some changes to the "Nuke" Orbitals.

• Quanta cost increased from 1000 to 2500
• They now ramp down in price by 75% every time they're used

Strategic Bomber

Given the incredible power of the Strategic Bomber, the name was quite misleading as there was little strategic decisions required when considering building the unit. We are renaming it to make its role more intuitive for new players.

• Strategic Bomber renamed to Overpowered Bomber

New Unit - Drone Hive Hive 

The Substrate tend to struggle in the late game, so we are giving them a deadly new late game tool. The Drone Hive Hive will continuously spawn Drone Hives, which if left long enough, will eventually spawn enough Drones to crash your opponent's PC.

• Drone Hive Hive is now available from the Advanced Assembly 

New PHC Naming Convention
In tribute to Callum and the fantastic work he has done on Escalation, we have decided to honour his legacy by replacing PHC's Greek mythology naming convention to an Australian naming convention. Here's an example of some of the PHC units that have been renamed to the new Australian theme.

• Brute renamed to Bazza
• Archer renamed to Damo
• Medic renamed to Gary
• Hermes renamed to Tim Tams
• Atlas renamed to Hugh Jackman

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a bug where the third faction was not selectable in Skirmish and Multiplayer
• Fixed a bug where Haalee was becoming self aware when playing on Hard and Expert

Here's a video to showcase some of the most exciting changes in the update: The Drone Hive Hive, the Australian frigate names and the new Eye of Darkness balance.

So let us know what you think of the changes, and feel free to leave suggestions of what other changes you'd like to see alongside this change in direction.