Dragon Alliance

Tue, 06/08/2010 – 12:54pm | by Thunder

Game Designer Clint “TASK3R” Tasker gives us a preview of some tuning to auto-cover coming in the next udpate:

Since the release of Dawn of War II unit plans and cover seeking have been a point of contention. This feature was originally brought over from Company of Heroes and adapted to Dawn of War. The intention was to make units of troopers seem more lifelike and intelligent. In COH you can see this when riflemen come under fire, they will search for cover, or dive for cover when an artillery round explodes nearby.

Guardians supporting
a Warlock

The fast pace and brutal combat in Dawn of War II makes it a far different game than Company of Heroes. A unit that spends time searching for cover instead of firing at the enemy can cost you a battle. Dawn of War II has developed its own community of skilled players who become discouraged when the control of a unit is taken out of their hands. I play Dawn of War II, the same as you, and there is nothing more frustrating than trying to kite a walker with a missile tact squad; just when you think you can turn them, take a shot and continue kiting they turn around, my squad steps three meters into cover and end up in melee range, only to be tied up.

We had taken steps to fix this in earlier updates and patches by making squads at least fire their first shot before they sought cover, but this still resulted in undesirable behavior. Ultimately we have decided that the unit’s movement should be left primarily in the hands of the player. So, in our upcoming 2.2.3 update we have made large changes to the cover seeking and behavior of units.

Whoops! Guardians run off
to find cover…

We have not stripped cover seeking out completely; instead we have left it in areas where the user is specifically trying to move a unit into cover. When a unit is selected and the player assigns a move order within 3 meters (2 meters for melee units) of cover the unit will automatically move into that piece of cover. Players can still do a right-click-drag order to specify which side of cover a unit should move to and see the preview for entity positioning. In fact this is probably the best way to move a unit into cover as it grants maximum precision. More importantly than what will happen is what will not happen. Entities will no longer move or perform other cover seeking activities in the middle of combat. Once engaged the unit will stand still and fight for the entire duration of the combat, maximizing their damage per second.

On top of this we have increased the rate at which most units and commanders rotate. What this does is remove that sluggish feel for when units turn. It’s a bit difficult to describe in just words but it will make kiting and moving units in general a lot more responsive.

I know, I know, this is just a whole lot of talk and you’ll have to try it for yourself. Look forward to these changes and more coming in the 2.2.3 update.

Right-click preview

Release Notes v2.2.3
Dawn of War II: Chaos Rising

General
New map

• (2p) Hive City – Community map contest winner available for custom games

Cover seek behavior

• Many units have had major changes to their cover seek behavior. They should cover seek when told to move near cover but otherwise stand and shoot in any other situation.

Garrison

• inferno_pvp damage multiplier against garrison_cover increased from 0.2 to 0.3
• piercing_pvp damage multiplier against garrison_cover increased from 0.2 to 0.3
• plasma_pvp damage multiplier against garrison_cover increased from 0.2 to 0.3
• suppression_pvp damage multiplier against garrison_cover increased from 0.2 to 0.3

Chaos
Sorcerer

• Chains of Torrment no longer affects enemies in buildings
• Subjugation cool down time increased from 40 to 80s
• Starting courage reduced from 200 to 100
• Size changed from Medium to Small
• Warp Rift no longer affects retreating units

Havocs

• Mark of Tzeentch Lascannon slow effect now applies to Carnifexes and Tyrant Guard

Plague Marine Champion

• Touch of Nurgle no longer affects retreating untis
• Bile blower now properly hits all entities in a building
• Bile blower’s bilious discharge cooldown increased from 20 to 30s

Blood Crusher

• Daemonic Roar no longer affects retreating units

Chaos Dreadnought

• Dreadnoughts under the effect of Blood Frenzy will now attack buildings with garrisoned troops

Chaos Predator Tank

• Build time reduced from 55 to 45s
• Autocannon damage reduced from 210 to 120
• Mark of Nurgle cost increased from 150/35 to 150/50
• Mark of Nurgle now increases health of the Chaos Predator by 75% up from 50%

Plague Marines

• Plague missile slow now affects Tyrant Guard

Space Marines
Force Commander

• Special attacks for lightning claws and power fist have been changed to weapon knockback and will not affect retreating units.

Assault Marines

• Melta bombs now can be used on Tyrant Guard

Tactical Marines

• Flamers now properly hit all entities in a building

Heavy Bolter Devastators

• Lascannon slow effect now applies to Carnifexes and Tyrant Guard

Terminators

• Cost for both Terminators and Assault Terminators increased to 650/350 from 600/300
• Assault cannon damage lowered from 150 to 128
• Assault cannon cost increased from 70/70 to 100/80
• Heavy flamer cost increased from 40/40 to 80/40
• Cyclone missile launcher cost increased from 60/60 to 100/70
• Cyclone missile barrage scatter distance has been reduced from 10 to 6
• Cyclone missile barrage damage increased from 40 to 50
• Cyclone missile barrage cool down time increased from 20 to 60s
• Cyclone missile barrage knockback distance and loft slightly increased

Eldar
Farseer

• Speed increase from Holo-field on Farseer Webway gates can no longer stack with itself.

Warlock Commander

• Starting courage reduced from 200 to 100

Warp Spider Exarch

• Can no longer group teleport to out of bounds areas
• Fixed an issue that prevented Shimmer Orb from being cast
• Starting courage reduced from 200 to 100

Banshees

• Starting courage reduced from 300 to 100

Orks
Sluggas

• Sluggas can no longer ‘speed build’ buildings
• Burnas now properly hit all entities in a building

Tyranids
General

• Tyranid population threshold for upkeep lowered from 30 to 26

Hive Tyrant

• The modifier for Invulnerability now lasts 12 seconds
• Size changed from Small to Medium

Lictor Alpha

• First strike from scything talons now does weapon knockback and will not affect retreating units

Termagants

• Termagant claw damage has been decreased from 8 to 4

Raveners

• Upkeep cost increased from 0.017 to 0.02125
• Population cost increased from 4 to 5

Venom Brood

• Cost increased from 300/15 to 350/15

Carnifex

• Thornback upgrade cost increased from 100/50 to 200/50
• Carnifex population cost increased from 15 to 20
• Carnifex upkeep cost increased from 0.0765 to 0.0956

Synapse

• Speed increase to Tyrant Guard is now exclusive and will not stack
• All effects from synapse now apply within a 32m radius

GameReplays.org is proud to announce that we shall be hosting our very own Dawn of War 2 tournament, sponsored by THQ! THQ has graciously put forward an AMD 5870 graphics card as the prize, with a retail value of $400 USD, which will be shipped directly to the winner! Interested? Then read on!

Tournament Rules

All games will be 1v1.

Time and Date

• Day 1 will be Saturday, June 12th.
• Day 2 will be Sunday, June 13th
• Day 3 will be Saturday, June 19th

To see the system in a simpler picture format, click here.

Format – Day One

• Best of three
• Qualifying round 1, featuring 64 players, winners advance to qualifying round 2
• Qualifying round 2, featuring 32 players, winners advance to tournament proper

Format – Day Two

• Best of one
• “A” and “B” bracket
• “A” bracket, Round 1. 16 players, winners advance to Round 2 “A”, losers drop to Round 2 “B”
• “A” bracket, Round 2. 8 players, winners advance to Round 3 “A”, losers drop to Round 3 “B”
• “A” bracket, Round 3. 4 players, winners advance to Semi-finals “A”, losers drop to Round 5 “B”
• “B” bracket has no Round 1 as all players begin in “A” bracket
• “B” bracket, Round 2. 8 players, winners advance to Round 3 “B”, losers are eliminated
• “B” bracket, Round 3. 8 players, winners advance to Round 4 “B”, losers are eliminated
• “B” bracket, Round 4. 4 players, winners advance to Round 5 “B”, losers are eliminated
• “B” bracket, Round 5. 4 players, winners advance to Round 6 “B”, losers are eliminated
• “B” bracket, Round 6. 2 players, winners advance to Semi-finals “B”, losers are eliminated

Format – Day Three

• Best of three
• “A” bracket, Semi-finals. 2 players, winner advances to Finals, loser is eliminated
• “B” bracket, Semi-finals. 2 players, winner advances to Finals, loser is eliminated
• Final round. “A” bracket champion faces “B” bracket champion, best-of-three, winner takes all, loser is eliminated

To register

To register, head here to the Dawn of War 2 E-sports forums, and enter your Games for Windows Live username, as well as your Steam contact details. As with past tournaments, an official Steam group will be set up to organize matches. To register and play in the June tournament, you must have a valid, unbanned GameReplays.org account, Steam account, and GFWL account.

Match Results

It is up to the winner to post the match replay for the outcome of the match. All matches must be uploaded to GameReplays’ replay portal. A new game event called “June Tournament 2010″ will be created for uploading replays from this tournament for easy sorting.

If a player drops out of the match, Referees will determine the match’s results, and the replay will still need to be posted.

Rules

Drops/Disconnects:
If a player should – for whatever reason – drop or disconnect during a match, the result of the match may be arbitrated by tournament moderators pending review of the replay. It may be arbitrated as a loss for the dropping player or potentially a win if it is obvious they had an irrecoverable lead late into the game. It may also be asked that the match be replayed. If the opposing team volunteers in goodwill to replay the match, the match may be replayed. If your opponent drops: take a screenshot showing that they dropped from the match, then save the replay and get both to a tournament organizer immediately.

Sportsmanship:
You will respect your opponents, the tournament organizers and anyone else involved in the tournament at all times. Trash-talking and verbal abuse in game will not be tolerated and will result in a disqualification. If your opponents are being abusive during a match, again take a screenshot of the abusive language in chat. Do not stop playing the match. Play the entire match out and then bring the conduct of the offending player(s) to the attention of a tournament moderator after the match. At the discretion of the tournament mod, the player(s) may be disqualified if their behavior was inappropriate but please remember that this is for us to judge. Do not assume they will be disqualified: take a screen shot of the offense and then continue to play all matches fully.

Any player being similarly offensive in any of the chat lobbies will also be disqualified from the tournament.

Bans:
There are currently no banned exploits or glitches. If there is one that is easily abusable and can be proven in a replay, send a private message to Ninjabutter, Alxander, or blaqk as soon as possible and we will take it under discussion.

Rulings and Rule changes:
The rules of the tournament are subject to change up until the day of the tournament itself. If an unforeseen circumstances arise during the tournament and a new ruling must be made, it will be made by a tournament moderator at that point in time. If you have an issue with something that happens during the tournament, you may address it to tournament moderators.

Please note that the rulings of tournament moderators are final. Our decisions cannot be appealed and complaining persistently over a ruling may result in a disqualification and potential exclusion from future tournaments. Please understand we will do everything within our power to make our judgment calls as fair as possible but questioning our authority will not help your case or be tolerated and serves only to further delay the tournament.

If you have any further questions or suggestions, feel free to post them in this thread for clarification. One of the section administrators or Tournament Moderators will answer you as soon as possible.

Good luck!