Cosmonarchy mod for StarCraft

Cosmonarchs, rejoice! The Zerg tutorial is upon you, and with Acropolis #1 coming to a startling conclusion, we have more development time than ever to spend on audiovisuals, singleplayer content, and balance updates!

In this installment of our weekly devlog, you can expect to read all about competitive results, how they informed our impending balance adjustments, and what the arrival of the Zerg tutorial means for future content development. Huzzah!

If you like what you see here, you can always join us on Discord and pledge support on ko-fi!

The master of Acropolis #1 has been decided! 🇦🇺Neblime (Zerg) has taken care of the competition in a rematch of the Upper Final, and is your back-to-back champion of Cosmonarchy's premiere 1v1 tournaments!

You can watch the final VOD here!

Our final placements for Acropolis #1 were:

• 1st: 🇦🇺Neblime (Zerg) -- $200
• 2nd: 🇺🇸The Shambler (Protoss) -- $100
• 3rd: 🇷🇺Hamster (Protoss) -- $60
• 4th: 🇺🇸Hupsaiya (Protoss) -- $40
• 5-6th: 🇺🇸Newt (Terran), 🇺🇸Art_Of_Turtle (Zerg)
• 7-8th: 🇸🇪Tacocake (Zerg), 🇺🇸GeneralAnakin (Protoss)
• 9-12: 🇺🇸3crow (Protoss), 🇵🇭jakulangski (Zerg), 🇺🇸TopRamen (Terran), 🇺🇸TheBeaver99 (Terran)

Many thanks to all who participated -- and keep your eyes out for our next competitive event, the May Royal Invitational, on 25 and 26 May!

We are proud to deploy the Zerg tutorial, Autophagy, compatible with prerelease game builds! While the AI enemy is liable to improve in future updates, and some conditions for certain dialogue events are likely to be adjusted, the overall experience should be fairly close to the final cut. Thanks for your patience while the tutorial took an extra week to marinate, and enjoy this first proper display of Krysilliant's Zerg!

Last week, we wrote a few words about the forthcoming singleplayer content, and there's no question about our focus on that now that Acropolis #1 is over and the Zerg tutorial is (mostly) completed. In addition to this work on Cosmonarchy's campaigns, lead designer Pr0nogo intends to complete one 2v2 map layout per week for the next few weeks, with the hope that our growing playerbase will eventually visit these team-based battlegrounds. Just imagine the castovers!

Donating monthly via our ko-fi page gives you insider access to the development sessions for Cosmonarchy's singleplayer campaigns -- and you'll also get the opportunity to test prerelease versions of the maps, when they enter into that preliminary testing phase! We welcomed new member HitEmUp earlier this week at the $33-per-month tier, and are forever grateful for the support we've received from the old guard -- thank you all for your contributions!

The Protoss cornerstone Tyranny of the Sun is receiving significant revisions, coming soon to a release game build near you. This is off the back of competitive results from both Acropolis #1 and general 1v1 play, which saw the indomitable Mind Tyrant being much too strong against most mid-range compositions, and the fearsome Empress snowballing fights quite effortlessly. Thanks to the higher level of play as of late, these interactions were exposed, allowing the team to work on revising the mechanics ahead of future competition!

The Demiurge is a good test case for this approach, with its Worship passive having already been reworked. When hostiles within 6 range of the Demiurge take fatal damage, they enter a stasis for five seconds - and if a Demiurge is still in range at the end of that time, they are permanently seized by the automaton's owner. This means that the ability to get your unit back is no longer present, but you can still zone the Protoss away from your fallen units in order to save them from a traitorous fate.

Other changes to the Protoss arsenal include the Patriarch losing some durability, splash damage, and the Ascension proc on units afflicted by its Astral Rule passive. The Gladius's projectiles no longer instantly bounce to nearby hostiles when a victim dies, which will slightly reduce the runaway snowball effects the unit sometimes had. The towering Optecton has lost its secondary anti-air attack, and will run Protoss players more time and vespene. The Amaranth has gained 20 shields, making it by far the more reliable frontline option compared to the Zealot. The Clarion no longer leaks on-hit and spell effects onto linked allies, making it a far more reliable tool for persistent sustain.

There's more to say about the Protoss arsenal, and more to come as far as changes are concerned, but this covers what has been done so far and what is being considered in the near future! But that's not all...

The Hydralisk has lost its armor penetration, but Zerg players can expect to use the Vorvrokor and Nathrokor for rending armor in a newfound way! This non-stacking armor reduction is known as Hidebreaker, and other Zerg strains are likely to evolve it in time, likely with greater amounts of armor rended. This means Zerg players can reclaim a bit of their Hydralisk's performance vs armor when utilizing Vornath Pond units, which will also boost the impact of other combat strains, making composition more important for early-stage engagements!

We are still metabolizing the competitive data from the previous game build, and many intended changes (such as the Mind Tyrant and Empress reworks) are yet to surface, so you can expect more adjustments as the week marches on. For now, jump into the prerelease game build, and leave us your feedback on these updates!

With all the 1v1s that are being played these days, you can not only expect the daily casts to continue, but you can also expect some Terran victories! As our two-time champ said, patches will continue until skill improves...

This week will be focused around further audiovisual improvements, progress on the looming iscript extender, more quashing of pesky desyncs, and of course, campaign development. 2v2 layouts are on the to-do list, as well, and you can expect some of Pr0nogo's public devstreams to reflect that priority. He'll finally crack down on some of the bounties, too!

We'll be taking a weekend off of competitive events, so this coming Saturday will be a time for silly games. FFAs, team vs team, maybe some customs as well -- all are welcome to join us for Fraudarchy!

Pr0nogo's youtube channel continues to host daily Cosmonarchy commentaries! This week had some absolute bangers, like:

• Eud64 vs HitEmUp (Leviathan) - TvZ on Star-Shorn Sepulchre!
• The Shambler, Eud64, TopRamen, Smrtycakes - FFA on Star-Shorn Sepulchre!
• Neblime vs The Shambler - ZvP on Ithaca!
• ECalipso vs Eud64 - PvT on Germination!