Update 5: Lock, Shock, and Barrel
PATCH HIGHLIGHTS:
- SINGLE ACTION MELEE: Rework of melee attacks.
- MIND THE ZAP: 7 new energy weapons!
- HOW’S THE WEATHER UP THERE: New elevated tanks.
- MORE WAYS TO HURT: 3 new damage types.
- A FINE LINE: Lots of balance changes.
Phantom Brigade is in Early Access, which means we are actively updating and adding new content based on our roadmap and your wonderful feedback. We update Phantom Brigade on the third Tuesday of every month. You can expect the next major update on Tuesday, May 18th at 11:00AM PT. See the full patch notes below!
Changes in 0.6.0-b1676
? indicates changes due to community feedback
Single Action Melee
- ? Melee is now as simple as placing it on the timeline and targeting anywhere, just like dash. The new targeting UI helps show which side of the melee path your unit will strike (which can be changed with CTRL)
- ? Multiple units can be hit at once if they’re in range of a planned melee action
- The end point of the melee attack will be where your unit ends up
- ? Now allow clicking outside the bounds of melee or dash actions, meaning player clicks do not have to be as precise as before
- Added a tooltip on the timeline to explain how to place a melee action
- Switched “melee” border when placing an attack to “location targeting”
- Rebalanced the damage colliders on melee to make them wider
New Energy Weapons, some of which have guided projectiles (can be found starting in Logge):
- Thermite (Railgun Repeater – Penetrating):
- Long-range
- Several shots in quick succession
- High accuracy but only while stationary
- Generates a lot of heat
- Flux (Railgun Splitter – Penetrating):
- Medium-range
- Tight cluster of shots
- Not effective in close range
- Best used against single enemies rather than groups
- Dragon (Incendiary Splitter – Stagger):
- Medium-range
- Shoots guided energy pellets over a longer period of time
- Not as effective at close range
- Best for medium range, moving targets
- Causes thermal damage
- Pulse (Plasma Repeater – Stagger):
- Medium-long range
- ~10 non-guided energy rounds at a moderate rate
- Tracer (Incendiary Repeater – Guided):
- Medium-long range
- High-velocity energy pellets that slow down and chase the target after a certain distance
- Very accurate when targeting strafing enemies
- Curve (Plasma Seeker – Stagger, Guided):
- Long-range
- Several rapid energy pellets that guide towards the enemy
- Shots curve around and over small obstacles
- Not as powerful or accurate as regular sniper rifles
- Does not lose accuracy when fired on the move
- Charge (Plasma Launcher – Concussion, Guided):
- Fires huge, slow-moving and accurate energy projectiles
- Less effective against fast-moving enemies and sharp elevation changes
- Shots have wide AoE on impact
- Deals increased concussion damage
New Damage Types
- Penetrating: Some weapon rounds will now punch through units and cover at very high speed. This can damage multiple units, so line up your shots well!
- Stagger: Some weapons now reduce the stability of units making them easier to knock down. These weapons can cause crashes with enough focused fire of this type.
- Thermal: Some weapons increase the heat stat of the target, leading to faster overheating and additional thermal damage.
Elevated Tanks
- Tanks on tall treads which can overcome elevated cover can be found starting Ostbager-Weil and more frequently in later provinces.
- These tanks can spawn with Railguns
Balance changes to scenarios and squad composition
- ? There are now less Leader units on the field
- New enemy roles:
- Artillery: Prioritizes weakened targets at long range.
- Grenadier: Prioritizes weakened targets at short range.
- New AI targeting: Each enemy role now has unique targeting behavior
- Added more light enemy mechs
- Hybrid tanks that use sidearms will be more aggressive
- Ultra-heavy enemy units will use the gun more to its full potential
- New Grenadier role allows for more weapon variety in squad composition
New Tips and Descriptions
- ? Added UI to display accumulated stagger, heat, and concussion damage on a unit.
- Stagger debuff value will update as long as change in damage is larger than 0.05
- Subsystems now have descriptions
- Updated weapon descriptions in combat
- Renamed “Flak Cannon” to “Cannon” and updated the description
Miscellaneous
- All vehicles can now overheat and take thermal damage
- Toned down hills and valleys in terrain on various maps
- ? Simplified the tooltip for dash in the timeline
Changes since Experimental:
- Added more new SFX to energy weapons and missile launchers
- ? Improved trajectory prediction on secondary melee actions
- Updated some weapon category descriptions in combat (UI in the bottom right corner of the screen when hovering over an attack in the action palette)
Fixed Issues in 0.6.0-b1676
- Fixed missing pilot names in Mountain Base scenario
- Limping speed is reduced to 4 for all units regardless of original speed
- Fixed SFX missing on destructible props (such as trees)
- Guardian and Grenadier units will no longer use light shield
- Fixed some types enemy units spawning with two sidearms
- Fixed an issue where a Scout opted for an LMG instead of an MMG
- Cutter knife is currently missing trail VFX when attacking
- Fixed an exception that occurred during the Dog narrative event
- Fixed an issue where melee attacks with Cutter weapons did not connect
- Fixed tanks and turrets not generating heat
- Fixed an issue where thrusters would stay on after a fallback melee attack
- Fixed smoke from explosions and VFX from energy weapon trails shooting across the map
- Fixed an issue causing shields to snap around when mechs are jumping across gaps in terrain
- Fixed units with shields holding them upside down when executing melee attacks
- Fixed heat warning on the timeline not displaying correctly
- Fixed reinforcement wave hybrid tanks missing lower body integrity bar as well as turret