Heads up, Commander! It’s an aircraft unit upgrade extravaganza! The Level 15 OH-58 Kiowa, AH-1 Cobra, and AH-64 Apache are here.
As with the recent max unit level increases, your Level 15 OH-58 Kiowa, AH-1 Cobra, and AH-64 Apache will also feature improved stats and no increase in battalion space requirements. As with any improvement in power, there is an increase in cost, production time, and repair time.
The Level 15 OH-58 Kiowa, AH-1 Cobra, and AH-64 Apache upgrades require a blueprint that can only be purchased during Hardware Event Weeks in the Hardware Prize Store. We will continue to release similar levels in this catch-up mechanic boost to more core units going forward. Good hunting, Commanders!
A couple minor patches were also deployed earlier this week that address two UI improvements that were requested by you the players. Effective now:
The Unit Blueprints and Elite Blueprints sections of the store are now divided into sections for Infantry, Vehicle, and Aircraft. Furthermore, the Unit Equipment section of the store is now divided into sections for Infantry, Vehicles, Aircraft, Elite Infantry, Elite Vehicles, and Elite Aircraft. We’re hoping this will make it a little easier to find the upgrades you’re looking for.
You can now move buildings while they are crafting, repairing, or upgrading.
Updated “Elite Blueprints” section in the ONP Store
Bug Fix
Last but not least, a bug fix patch has been applied to all Battlehouse games:
As most of you probably already know, there is a limit to how many buffs a player can apply to themselves at any given time. A long standing bug was making it so debuffs were also counting towards the buff limit. They are no longer doing so. Time to energize those boosts!
Have feedback to share about this week’s updates? Let us know over in the “days-of-valor” channel within our Thunder Run Discord Server.
Welcome to the 7th installment of the Battlehouse Dev Blog, a place where fans of all Battlehouse games can enjoy regular behind the scenes peaks into the minds of Battlehouse Developers. Last week, bh-nirgal provided some updates on current projects he’s working on for MF, WSE, TR, and DV and this week he’s diving deeper into some of the juicy details surrounding his TR and DV developments. So without further adieu, here’s bh-nirgal:
Thunder Run and Days of Valor Developments
The ability to move buildings while they are “busy” has been added to the engine. Both Thunder Run and Days of Valor players can move upgrading, crafting, or repairing buildings now. The next engine quality of life change will be to enable accessing building stats while the building is “busy”. This will take slightly longer, since it will affect more portions of the engine.
Many players have requested that Unit Equipment be broken up by unit type. A working prototype of this was developed over the weekend, and is being fine-tuned before release to Days of Valor and then Thunder Run.
Unit Equipment section in the ONP Store
Days of Valor and Thunder Run players may notice that Unit Blueprints and Elite Unit Blueprints are now split into Infantry, Vehicles, and Aircraft sub-sections. This will make it a little easier to get to some of the blueprints.
The Level 5 leaders, along with the alternative leader update system, is well underway. This will mostly affect how players buy leaders and how players upgrade leaders. The new L5 leaders will be stronger versions of the existing L4 leaders and will not introduce any new mechanics other than how you upgrade to get them.
Buying leaders: Right now, the store entries for each leader checks if you have any level of the leader, and whether you can still upgrade the leader. If so, it lets you buy another leader. Since we’re changing the crafting system, the main listing for leaders will let you buy a leader if you don’t have any level of the leader. Old system: 1x L3 leader, 1x L2 leader = can buy another L1 leader New system: 1x L3 leader = cannot buy another leader
Upgrading leaders: The upgrade menu in the Leader Barracks now has three “recipes” for upgrading each leader to each level from 2 through 4.
There’s a legacy recipe that you’ll never see. This will keep any upgrades in process when we deploy the patch from disappearing.
There’s a “merge” recipe, which normally doesn’t show. This works the same way as you’re used to. If you have two leaders of the same level, this recipe will show up so you can upgrade them. If you only have one leader, it won’t show up.
There’s a “promote” recipe, which displays if the “merge” recipe doesn’t display. The engine seamlessly switches between the two. A “promotion” recipe requires a leader and “Promotion Orders”, an item you can acquire in the store. There are four levels of Promotion Order. A promotion order is more expensive than a leader, but the Hardware cost and time required to Promote is significantly less than combining multiple leaders.
The upgrade times and costs have been changed. To determine the new costs and times, I added the upgrade time and upgrade cost for each level, divided it by the number of recipes, and rounded it down. This means that individual leaders might take longer and cost more, but taken as a whole L2, L3, and L4 all take less time and cost less.
To try to bring some balance the greater number of upgrades required under the old system, it takes twice as long to do a promotion upgrade as a merge upgrade. Bear in mind, you have to craft L1 to L2 four times and L2 to L3 twice to get to L4, so there is a time savings in the L1 to L2 stage.
Buying Promotion Orders: The Promotion Order items will appear before the Alpha Team in the leaders section of the store. If you don’t like the new system, you’re in luck! The old store listings will be in a sub-section of the Promotion Order. You can still buy all 8 level 1 leaders required to upgrade a leader to L4, or you can buy the 1 leader and 4 Promotion Orders required to upgrade. It’s your choice.
L5 Leaders only support the new Promotion Order method of upgrading. You will not be combining two L4 Leaders.
Looking for an update on where the Dev Team currently stands regarding various recent community suggestions? Check out our new “Voice of the Commander” tracker here: Thunder Run Voice of the Commander: Declassified.
Like what you see in this Dev Blog, or have suggestions on things you’d like to see addressed in our “Voice of the Commander” trackers? Let us know over on our Thunder Run Discord Server!
To further build on the release of Tactical Ops Center Level 12 two weeks ago, Gundar Arms Industries has decided it’s time for an Infantry training overhaul. Effective today:
The Academy is now upgradeable to L17.
The Barracks is now upgradeable to L18.
Take advantage of these upgrades today to start researching and training Level 16 Infantry!
Level 16 Infantry
Heads up, Commander! The Level 16 Rifleman, Mortarman, Machine Gunner, Javelin Gunner, Stinger Gunner, Combat Engineer and Sniper are here.
As with the recent max unit level increases, your Level 16 Infantry will feature improved stats and no increase in battalion space requirements. As with any improvement in power, there is an increase in cost, production time, and repair time.
The best part about it? No blueprints are required for upgrading your L16 Infantry. So as long as you have TOC12 and the new building levels for your Academy and Barracks, you can upgrade away!
TOC Weapons
It’s time to turn your Level 12 Tactical Ops Center into a defense machine, because TOC Weapons are here! Now available in the ONP Store for players with TOC12:
TOC LRAD Weapon – This sonic weapon disorients and confuses enemy troops.
TOC HEL Weapon – This scientific breakthrough can blind all units and defend against incoming missiles.
To equip your TOC Weapons: purchase the blueprints in the ONP Store during an ONP Event week, activate the blueprints from your Warehouse, and then click on your TOC followed by “Change Weapon” similar to how you would if you were arming a turret head to a turret emplacement.
These TOC weapons are currently upgradeable to L10, so be sure to check out the “Weapons” section of your Weapons Lab for upgrade options.
Pictured Above: L12 TOC sporting an L1 TOC HEL Weapon
User Interface Update
And that’s not all, Commanders! Oooh, no- That is not all. We’ve been hearing community feedback loud and clear, and one game improvement that’s been a common suggestion from you the players for a long time now has been giving you guys the ability to close or hide some of the in-game menus that take up lots of valuable screen space. Guess what? We’ve delivered. Effective as of earlier this week:
Click the “down” arrow in the bottom left of your game window to hide your trusty advisor Candace.
Click the “down” arrow in the bottom middle of your game window to hide your friends bar.
Click the “down” arrow in the bottom right of your game window to hide weekly event information.
All of these elements can be brought back by clicking the “up” arrows that remain, and the bottom left arrow will flash if Candace has any new messages for you that require your attention.
Have feedback to share about this week’s releases? Let us know over in the “days-of-valor” channel within our Thunder Run Discord Server.
Welcome to the 6th installment of the Battlehouse Dev Blog, a place where fans of all Battlehouse games can enjoy regular behind the scenes peaks into the minds of Battlehouse Developers. Last week, bh-nirgal took a deep dive into some of the current projects he’s working on for Battlefront Mars, and this week he’s providing us all some updates on his War Star Empire, Mars Frontier, Thunder Run, and Days of Valor projects. So without further adieu, here’s bh-nirgal:
War Star Empire and Mars Frontier Developments
War Star Empire has received a lot of dev cycles over the past year, thanks mostly to the presence of Promethium in the game. The three currencies allowed a 1 to 1 conversion and reskin of the turret system in Thunder Run, Days of Valor and Firestrike. I have a few minor changes in the pipeline, but I want to give players time to finish off the Central Computer L8 tier of content. I do have some questions for players:
Would you prefer more levels of existing units, elite versions of existing units, both, or neither?
Would you like more defenses like mines, or no?
Would you like to be able to swap out the security teams on your buildings with ones made up of different units?
Mars Frontier is our quietest group of fans. Other than making an Opportunity Rover building security team add-on in memorial to our little rover friend, I haven’t spent much time working on Mars Frontier, and I’ve never received any requests or feedback from the player base. Is there anything you all would like to see, or are you pretty happy right now?
Thunder Run and Days of Valor Developments
Days of Valor has had the economy portion of the TOC12 patch for two weeks, and will get the Infantry patch tomorrow. Thunder Run is getting the economy portion of the TOC12 patch tomorrow. Portions of this patch will automatically unlock through January.
Now that this project has shipped, I’ll be tackling a major redesign of the introduction tutorial and rebalance of lower levels of content. There are two versions of the new player tutorial being tested in Days of Valor. We try to test and fine-tune things like these to see if we can figure out what will acquire and retain more new players. Based on the numbers in Days of Valor, we’ll either incorporate the new tutorial into Thunder Run as-is, or make tweaks to both the Days of Valor and Thunder Run versions. Once this is ready, we’ll be launching some new ad campaigns. I hope this will answer some of the good player questions we had on what we’re doing to grow the game.
While this is going on, I am working on some small UI changes and improvements. I’m testing the ability to move buildings that are being constructed, repaired, or are crafting in Days of Valor. Its release to the other games is pending.
I added in the ability to toggle the advisor and opponent AI portraits. It was deployed to Days of Valor for testing on October 26, and will be added to Thunder Run on October 31.
Looking for an update on where the Dev Team currently stands regarding various recent community suggestions? Check out our new “Voice of the Commander” trackers below:
(the Mars Frontier and Days of Valor feedback trackers are currently empty – let us know what you want to see over on Discord!)
Like what you see in this Dev Blog, or have suggestions on things you’d like to see addressed in our “Voice of the Commander” trackers? Let us know over on our Thunder Run Discord Server!
This week in Thunder Run, and all other Battlehouse Games: our on-site Forums will be archived and will be officially replaced with the new Thunder Run Discord Server, which offers exciting benefits like voice chat, better moderation features, and official “Ask a Dev” events. Clan HQ will also be closing down at a later date.
Forums Transition to Discord
Effective this Wednesday, October 30th: the Battlehouse.com Forums will be put into “archive mode” and will no longer be allowing new posts. The forums will remain in read-only status so that various popular player guides and feedback records will still be accessible for your reference.
A banner at the top of the forums will re-direct everyone to our official Thunder Run Discord Server where our Community and Design teams will continue to participate in chats with the player-base, and continue to log all player feedback for future game design considerations.
Clan HQ Transition to Discord
At a later “to be decided” date, Clan HQ will also be shutting down and redirecting players to Discord in a similar fashion.
Players who routinely use Clan HQ are encouraged to start using the Thunder Run Discord Server as we work towards finalizing this transition. Clan HQ users from other Battlehouse Games will find an “Other Battlehouse Games” section in the list of available Discord channels where they can continue chatting about their favorite Battlehouse game in the appropriate game channel as they were in Clan HQ.
If there is enough player demand for any particular Battlehouse Game other than Thunder Run, the Community team may choose to create separate dedicated Discord servers for other games.
More information about the specific date of the Clan HQ migration will be coming soon.
Heads up, Commander! It’s an armor unit upgrade extravaganza! The Level 15 GPW, M4A1 Mortar, M8 Greyhound, M12 GMC, M4A2 Sherman, and M26 Pershing are here.
As with the recent max unit level increases, your Level 15 GPW, M4A1 Mortar, M8 Greyhound, M12 GMC, M4A2 Sherman, and M26 Pershing will also feature improved stats and no increase in battalion space requirements. As with any improvement in power, there is an increase in cost, production time, and repair time.
The Level 15 GPW, M4A1 Mortar, M8 Greyhound, M12 GMC, M4A2 Sherman, and M26 Pershing upgrades require a blueprint that can only be purchased during Hardware Event Weeks in the Hardware Prize Store. We will continue to release similar levels in this catch-up mechanic boost to more core units going forward. Good hunting, Commanders!
L14 -> L15 GPW StatsL14 -> L15 M4A1 Mortar Stats
L14 -> L15 M8 Greyhound Stats
L14 -> L15 M12 GMC Stats
L14 -> L15 M4A2 Sherman Stats
L14 -> L15 M26 Pershing Stats
Have feedback to share about this week’s updates? Let us know over on Clan HQ.
Your architects have been hard at work, Commander. In addition to a sharply-worded requisition order for more coffee, they’ve delivered the upgrade plans for the next Tactical Ops Center expansion. It seems like only yesterday we were huddled together in tents.
Tick-Tock! The TOC now upgrades to Level 12, unlocking a variety of new upgrades for your military forces!
New features include:
Fuel & Supply Yards are now upgradeable to L15.
Fuel & Supply Depots are now upgradeable to L17.
Generators are now upgradeable to L21.
The Vault is now upgradeable to L23.
The Transmitter is now upgradeable to L12.
Coming Soon: Will enable increased level caps on some of your favorite units and their coo-responding production buildings, along with more exciting and explosive content heading your way throughout the rest of the season.
You’ll need a lot of resources to upgrade your Tactical Operations Center to level 12. Better beef up your security teams so your enemies don’t sniff around for easy prey.
We’ll be sure to caffeinate your architects for you, Commander. That requisition order was just shy of a death threat.
More Level 4 Security Teams
Following up from our last Level 4 Security Team roll-out 2 weeks ago, this week we’re making even more teams upgradeable to L4:
Kilo Force – Adds security teams to defend Strategic Buildings
Lima Force – Adds security teams to defend Turret Emplacements.
November Force – Adds security teams to defend more Turret Emplacements.
Mike Force – Adds security teams to defend Leader Buildings and Hardware Depots
A hotfix for the Elite AH-64 Apache has been applied, effective right now:
The turret stunning Elite AH-64 Apache unit was originally designed to only be able to stun turrets, however a bug was brought to our attention recently that was inadvertently causing it to also be able to stun other aircraft units. The Elite AH-64 was never intended to be able to stun other aircraft, and this is now corrected. Please note that the Elite AH-64 will still be able to attack and do damage to other aircraft, but will not be able to stun them.
We appreciate those of you in the Community who brought this issue to our attention, and we thank you all in advance for your understanding.
Heads up, Commander! It’s an infantry unit upgrade extravaganza! The Level 15 Rifleman, Mortarman, Machine Gunner, and Sniper are here.
As with the recent max unit level increases, your Level 15 Rifleman, Mortarman, Machine Gunner, and Sniper will also feature improved stats and no increase in battalion space requirements. As with any improvement in power, there is an increase in cost, production time, and repair time.
The Level 15 Rifleman, Mortarman, Machine Gunner, and Sniper upgrades require a blueprint that can only be purchased during Hardware Event Weeks in the Hardware Prize Store. We will continue to release similar levels in this catch-up mechanic boost to more core units going forward. Good hunting, Commanders!
Welcome to the 3rd installment of the Battlehouse Dev Blog, a place where fans of all Battlehouse games can enjoy regular behind the scenes peaks into the minds of Battlehouse Developers. This week bh-nirgal will be diving deep into three active projects he’s currently working for Thunder Run and Days of Valor. So without further adieu, here’s bh-nirgal:
Thunder Run/Days of Valor Developments
There are three major projects underway for our flagship game and its sister game.
The first project, slated for release in Q4 2019, is the TOC12 tier. The Tactical Operations Center will be one of the new armed buildings. Starting at level 12, players can mount special turrets on the roof of the TOC. The turret designs currently in testing are built on the concept of the Long Range Acoustic Device (LRAD), meant to disorient and debuff incoming troops while doing little damage. It will have a much greater range than other turrets. For players who prefer a damage-dealer, the TOC will also have its own version of the High Energy Laser (HEL). Unlike turret HELs, the TOC HEL can target ground and air targets, at the cost of somewhat decreased damage. As part of this update, all mobile units will have their level caps raised to 16.
The second project, which should follow quickly on the heels of TOC12, is an overhaul of the Vault building. Every TOC level will get 2 vault levels. At the second level per tier, the vault will store enough hardware to be able to repair the base itself and the most expensive possible combination of Base Defenders units. The first level will be halfway between the old cap and the new cap. So let’s throw out some wildly inaccurate numbers and say it costs 300k Hardware to fully repair a TOC8 base and the best (or at least most hardware-expensive) army units in the game. If you have a level 16 Vault, you have that much saved from attackers. You can immediately start repairing. You can’t necessarily repair your field batts or protect what you have saved for research, but you can get your base back in business.
The third project, slated for an uncertain future date, is a rebalancing of the TOC tiers. This is one of the less-defined plans, and player feedback is highly encouraged. Ideally, I’d like to see the average player base level increase so that the top-tier players have worthwhile opponents to fight and the average player can hold their own. This would involve reducing research and building times for lower building levels and lower tech levels, and would involve reducing prices for older blueprints (or removing them altogether for some lower turret levels).
There’s some delicate terrain to navigate here. The game lives or dies based on players who pay to play. We cannot change that. So long as internet infrastructure costs money and so long as we have to pay our rent and pay to eat, we can’t make an entirely free game. Many of the players who pay to play are touchy about other players getting for free what they paid for.
I’d like to come up with a compromise. My plan is to divide the player base into a rookie tier, a regular tier, a veteran tier, and an elite tier, based on unlocked content.
The Elite Tier would always be the newest level of content, in this case all the stuff requiring TOC level 12. It doesn’t change until the theoretical release of TOC13, and is intended to give non-paying players at least six months of construction and research projects to complete. There are many players who won’t play if there’s nothing new to acquire, so the top tier needs to cater to this type of motivation.
The Veteran Tier is the last two levels of content, the stuff requiring TOC levels 10 and 11. It gets a slight nerf in ONP/hardware prices, research times, and build times, but no more than a 5% cut. I’d like to see players go from Veteran to Elite in half a year or less.
The Regular Tier is everything from TOC level 6 through TOC level 9. This gets a decent nerf in prices, research times, and build times, but never more than a 20% cut. I’d like to see players go from Regular to Veteran in a quarter of a year or less.
The Rookie Tier is everything at or below TOC level 5. This gets a generous nerf in prices, research times, and build times, up to a 50% cut. I’d like to see new players go from Rookie to Regular in less than a month. Sprinkled into the nerfs would be some removals of blueprint requirements.
How would it make you, the veteran players, feel if newcomers got for free some of the things you worked long and hard to acquire? Does the thought of new faces to fight and befriend make it worth it, or does it bother you to see cheaper availability? Please send me your thoughts.
Like what you see in this Dev Blog, or have suggestions on things you’d like to see Nirgal talk about in the future? Let us know over on our Thunder Run Discord Server (for Thunder Run players), or on Clan HQ (for all other games). See you all next week!
