Stardock is happy to announce a new opt-in for Ashes of the Singularity: Escalation v2.93 today. This new version of the game improves the game's benchmark, adds new maps and contains many balance updates.

This opt-in is not yet fully complete, but please let us know what you think, if you hit any new weird issues, suggestions, etc. in regards to the GPU benchmark.

Change Log

• General

  • Reduced unit sizes:

    • PHC Fury

    • PHC Medic

    • SS Avenger

    • SS Drone Hive

    • SS Martyr

    • SS Mauler

    • SS Reaper

    • SS Constructor

    • PHC Hermes
      
      
    • SS Dominator
      
      
  • New Maps: Aetheon and Desolation
  • Fixed Battleline - Frenzy map from not showing up for those who own that DLC
  • Updated the camera so it can now be pitched. 
  • Reverted change to put OK/Continue on the right and Back/Cancel on the left again.
  • All buildings given an Armor value of 4 to encourage players to construct units that specialize in destroying buildings.
  • All weapons are now either Armor Piercing or not. Figuring out if AP of 4 in the middle of a game will matter isn't helpful.
  • There was a general pass to all unit's secondary weapons to make them fire more frequently but do less damage.
  • PHC Balance / Updates
    
    • Archer - Rockets decreased from 3 shots to 2; reload time increased from 3 to 4; damage increased from 30 to 40.
    • Artemis
      • Harpoon anti-structure weapon restored; volley count increased from 1 to 2; damage per volley reduced from 400 to 200.
      • Missile barrage damage reduced from 85 to 70; increased AoE from 30 to 75; shots reduced from 6 to 5; projectile speed decreased from 150 to 100 m/s.
    • Athena - Inner weapon range reduced from 480 to 300; primary weapon range reduced from 550 to 500.
    • Brute - Plasma bolt shot count increased from 6 to 7; damage increased from 3.5 to 5.
    • Cronus - Armor reduced from 12 to 4.
    • Mobile Nullifier - Metal cost decreased from 800 to 700; Radioactive cost increased from 500 to 800.
    • Nemesis - Radioactive cost increased from 100 to 200; logistics cost increased from 12 to 16.
      • Rail gun reload time reduced from 9 to 5.5; damage increased from 800 to 900; range increased from 1400 to 1600.
      • Can no longer target buildings. This unit is meant to counter mass dreadnought spam.
    • Hades - HP increased from 1200 to 1400; Metal cost increased from 180 to 240; Radioactive cost increased from 130 to 160; Logistics cost increased from 7 to 9; construction time increased from 35 to 60 seconds.
    • Engineer - Reduced logistics cost from 3 to 2.
    • Quantum Relay - Radioactive cost increased from 300 to 400.
      
      
    • Refinery - Changes here are to reduce early game use of the Refinery.
      • Radioactive cost increased from 300 to 600.
      • Build time increased from 90 to 120.
    • Orbital Strike no longer has armor penetration; damage decreased from 1000 to 800.
    • Plasma Storm AOE increased from 500 to 600; DPS reduced from 10 to 5. The intention is to make Plasma Storm an area denial weapon, not to have it simply wipe out swaths of units.
    • Fixed typo that referred to the Orbital Factory as an Armory.
      
      
  • Substrate Balance / Updates
    
    • Except as noted, all Substrate units have had their Armor value reduced to 0.
    • Avenger
      • Plasma Bolt Hose reload time increased from 0.6 to 2.1; bolt count increased from 8 to 12; will no longer target buildings.
    • Destructor - Will no longer target units, this unit is meant to be anti-structure only.
      • Plasma Rain bolts per volley increased from 12 to 16; range decreased from 400 to 300.
    • Engineer - Reduced logistics cost from 3 to 2.
    • Eye of Darkness - Armor set to 8; Shields reduced from 37,500 to 24,000.
    • Harvester - Radioactive cost increased from 280 to 512; logistics cost increased from 3 to 12; construction time increased from 60 to 90.
    • Heart of the Phoenix - Armor set to 8; Shields reduced from 35,000 to 24,000.
      • Egg Armor set to 8.
    • Mauler - Shield regen rate increased from 1 to 4 per second.
      
      • Hyena Cutting Array reload time increased from 2.8 to 4.2; beam duration increased from 2.2 to 2.5; DPS increased from 70 to 75.
    • Mobile Nullifier - Metal cost decreased from 800 to 700; Radioactive cost increased from 500 to 800; Shield regen rate decreased from 2 to 1 per second.
    • Nest of the Queen - Armor set to 8; Shields reduced from 32,500 to 24,000.
    • Overmind - Shields increased from 11,000 to 12,000.
      
      
    • Reaper - Range reduced from 525 to 450m; reload time increased from 1.06 to 2.1; beam duration increased from 2.4 to 2.8 seconds.
    • Retributor - Armor set to 8; Shield regen rate reduced from 12 to 10; Shields increased from 11,000 to 12,000.
    • Savager - Shields increased from 12,500 to 14,000.
      
      
    • Scarab HP reduced from 40 to 30.
    • Quantum Archive radioactive cost increased from 300 to 400.

• Units & Structures (Benchmarks)

  • Modders: All units (and most structures) in the benchmark now use their own unit/building definitions (all append _bench). This prevents benchmark changes from affecting the playable game (still a bit more to do here w/buildings). Note that unless otherwise specified, all following changes refer to the GPU benchmark version only.

  • All units (and most structures) have had their rigidbodytemplate shape, dimensions and bounding areas updated. This properly sets up collision markers and boundaries to prevent clipping. You will see some units slide over/under others - this is somewhat expected for T1s slipping under T3s, etc. 

  • Archer and Advanced Strategic Bomber weapon fx updated to make they look different for the benchmark (color differences mainly).

  • Some things (Hera units, PHC Nexus, etc.) fire more frequently for the benchmark visuals.

  • FlockerTemplates were adjusted for everything to call their respective benchmark versions instead.

  • Added benchmark formations to FormationTemplates in order to try and keep everything from clumping together so much.

  • Added benchmark versions to all UnitModules for the benchmark so as not to affect regular game.

  • A few steeringmodules were updated for weapons - this part is still very much a work-in-progress.

• GPU Benchmark Script

  • Substantially updated the armies and unit groups used throughout the benchmark to better showcase diversity since the initial game. Generally speaking there are fewer units but higher batches overall with minimal hit to FPS.

  • Adjusted a couple of camera positions/angles in order to show off action. Previously these shots displayed empty (or near empty) space.

  • Fixed Substrate player from using PHC buildings for assets. The Substrate player now properly uses Substrate buildings.

  • Swapped out some basic defensive structures for higher level versions (i.e., Smarties for Barrager turrets and the like).

• CPU Benchmark
  
  
  • The CPU benchmark script has been updated with hundreds of fixes that were potentially causing things to not spawn before, exhibit odd behavior, etc.
    
    
  • T2/T3 unit versions from the GPU benchmark have been carried over to the CPU benchmark as well. We left other unit variants out since pathing in the CPU benchmark is very tight.

• Engine

  • Added support for up to 32 logical cores.

To Opt-In:

1. Select Ashes of the Singularity: Escalation in your Steam Library
2. Click the Gear icon in the upper-right and select Properties
3. Click the BETAS tab
4. Select opt-in from the drop-down menu and click OK
5. Steam will update you to the latest files