March 10 2023 Update: Our old discord server was hacked! Our new discord can be found here Discord.gg
Elite 2.9.8.4 Changelog
Preamble:
Happy New Year everyone!
I apologize for this patch coming behind schedule and past New Year’s at that. The goal was to have it ready before Christmas so that everyone is off for the holidays, but fate takes strange turns. With the minor delay, we’re now able to add very substantial additions to the live build that we’ll be detailing below.
The beta we released earlier this month has been illuminative in both what was and wasn’t said in the feedback. Its changes have been generally well received by the testers but we have both added and removed based on feedback both from testers and from advisors. However, a majority of the substance from our beta changelog has managed to survive scrutiny without introducing any silly bugs. Hooray!
This patch has been done on a far tighter schedule than we normally go through and as a result, we’ve reduced the scale of this patch relative to the normal release. We’ll be rectifying this in the coming planned patch sometime in March next year, where we hope to add several other proposals and improvements that had some support, but lacked the time for a proper peer review and testing before releasing it into the general public. We have exciting stuff behind the scenes that we think you’ll enjoy, but you’ll just have to wait a bit longer for those!
We’ve gotten several proposals and feedback directly from the community but sadly we’re unable at this time to commit to anything until the next patch for the same reasons that many other options aren’t included. The timeline was just too swift to properly put in the time, effort and testing to have the confidence to publish them. We’ve heard and logged these proposals for the coming patch!
On this patch proper, we’re adding Calderis Jungle as a new 1v1 map for players to enjoy thanks to Inekura’s efforts! If all goes well, it won’t be the only map coming in the near future. The call for new maps was a surprise at its magnitude but, thanks to our map makers, is something that can be provided.
Enlargingcloud has been hard at work cooking up an amazing new Elite army scheme but sadly, even with the delay, he was unable to finish it in time. We’ll be including it in the next patch once some errors have been fixed. Look forward to it!
Adeptus Noobus has been hard at work and has delivered an update to our ESL Reporter! While you won’t see much difference between the old and the new ESL Reporter on the user end, it’s the first step of a larger overhaul on our servers and match recording that we have people working on behind the scenes. They’re still a few months out for that but it’s an exciting start!
The new ESL reporter will be available as a separate download to 2.9.8.4. You can find it in the website, in its own forum post.
Thanks to the delay, Noot has been able to bless us with a massive game mode rework. I’ll let him describe his innovations personally.
Nooter:
We've worked out what exactly was causing strangeness when adding new game modes to dow2 (it was depressingly simple, look it's not my fault dow2 runs on actual spaghetti code ok), so I've abandoned weird methods of doing it and begun fast tracking work on them. To start with, you'll see 3 new game modes - two of these are extra-popcap variants of existing modes, and one is Hero Assault, a mode where you have reduced popcap but start with all 3 Heroes for a smaller scale but a more lethal and micromanaging hell experience!
Our largest content contribution for Dawn of War II as a whole rather than just Elite Mod is the recent sound and voice breakthrough we’ve achieved that will be explained further by Garrick. Breakthroughs can be very sporadic in their frequency to the point where we were expecting a user interface innovation (which just needs a little more work, but it’s also on its way ~Garrick) and instead got the doors blown off on the audio end!
Garrick: Dawn of War II Audio, right.
To make a long story short, Dawn of War II has a limited number of speechcodes, all of which are hardcoded into the exe. However, there is nothing that stops us from making existing speechcodes work for races other than the one it was intended for. For a speechcode, for our intent and purposes, is a folder, nothing more. Therefore, we can add the speechcode to another race and still make it work. Thanks to that we have a total of 8x8 permutations of speechcodes, which allows us all the speechcodes we need for the foreseeable future. What does this mean for you? Custom Ordo Malleus voices. The ones included for now are edited from existing Dawn of War II lines due to time constraints. Expect proper voice acting in the future… and maybe a custom HQ building/announcer? I’m getting ahead of myself…
As a result of our new insights into the way Dawn of War II handles voice lines and audio, we’re introducing a number of voiceline updates to Ordo Malleus units as the beginning of an audio overhaul and as a proof of concept for our new ability to edit speech codes for now while still keeping the mod future-proof. The current implementation we have inserted now may have some small issues here and there, but expect them to be ironed out as we progress through this project.
Looking to that future, we believe it’s fair to expect the next edition of Elite Mod to appear sometime in March of next year. While 5 weeks is very rough on what we can accomplish in that period of time, we can all agree that the 5 month, 6 month, even 7 month release cycles are very excessive and unreasonable to expect players to wait for. Expect roughly 3 month cycles for at least the foreseeable future!
In addition to actual patches, the state of our Discord servers, the new player experience and the competitive scene have also been brought up several times. While it’s still very early in the process, the team will be looking to improve the community experience as a whole in the break time between patches here.
With that all said, we hope you enjoy your new year and have fun with Elite 2.9.8.4!
Credits:
I would like to thank the team for their many contributions to the mod yet again.
………………
Models, Animations and Visuals: Enlargingcloud, Kekoulis, Noot, Garrick, Yreeeet
Programming (Units, Abilites and Misc): Shoulder Mount, Atlas, Enlargingcloud, Noot, Snowkip
Visual Effects: Enlargingcloud, Noot
Maps: Inekura, Swift, Noot
Portraits: Knall
Community Manager/Misc: yellowmonkeySoulEater
Game Testers: Shoulder Mount, Inekura, Enlargingcloud and all the people who tested all the various test builds who are too numerous to name
Finally, we extend one more thanks to you players for sticking around as long as you have. You’re the most faithful lot I’ve ever seen and we hope to meet your expectations from here on out.
Links:
Google Drive Link:
Mega Link:
The Libertas launcher and ModDB links have also been updated.
Maps:
Added the Calderis Jungle map to the 1v1 map pool.
Calderis Jungle:
“Since the Tyranids landed on Calderis in the First Aurelian Crusade, the few small pockets of jungle on this otherwise harsh Feudal World have become all the more dangerous. Survey teams have gone to map out the region, but none have returned thus far."
General/ Bug Fixes:
58 FPS default cap on shortcut removed. (can be restored by adding “-refresh 58” to your launch options and/or your shortcut)
Menu model changed to Exodite Warlock.
Baneblade/Stormlord/Stormblade model wrecks have been added.
The second bolt of Eldritch Storm will no longer have additional range and deal extra damage depending on the number of units within the initial target radius.
Melee resistance and minor melee resistance auras no longer stack with each other.
Holy Armor of Titan now grants/reduces the correct health value on equip/unequip.
Inquisitorial Storm Troopers Instant Grenade ability has been renamed to Impact Grenade.
Game Modes:
Three new Game Modes have been adding to the available Victory Condition options in multiplayer:
Victory Point Control - Massive Battles
Annihilate - Massive Battles
Hero Assault
Massive Battles mode increases the available army population from 100 to 200.
Hero Assault begins the game with your faction’s 3 heroes (Force Commander, Apothecary and Techmarine for SM specifically and Brother-Captain, Eversor Assassin and Daemonhunter for OM specifically.)
Audio:
Refiltered lines have been added to the following units:
Brother-Captain
Terminator Librarian
Grey Knight Dreadnought
Rhino
Vortimer Razorback
Grey Knight Terminators
Paladins
Land Raider Crusader
Chaos Space Marines
We believe Chaos to be in a stable and healthy position as of this moment. As a result, we simply keep the course for this current iteration and wait to see if any pressure points develop due to changes on other rosters.
Chaos Sorcerer:
Deamon Armor cost reduced from 125/30 to 125/25.
Chaos Heretics:
Aspiring Champion bolter damage per hit reduced from 18 to 13. (11 dps to 8 dps)
Chaos Terminators:
Health regeneration increased from 1.25 hp/s to 2 hp/s.
Eldar
We are trying to monitor Eldars performance rather precisely and will act on the outcome of our investigations in future patches. There have been several proposals, feedback and developments that have drawn the team’s interests.
Our primary change for Eldar is the implementation of an overhauled Ranger squad. Feedback has been fairly good on their addition and though we expect to tweak them in the coming patches based on more rigorous gameplay tests, we believe this iteration will hold up in the long term.
Howling Banshees:
Reinforcement cost increased from 28/0 to 30/0.
Rangers:
Population cost increased from 2 to 3. (6 to 9 for the squad)
Squad now comes with Fleet of Foot by default.
Squad now comes with Infiltrate by default.
Squad now has minor melee resistance by default.
Squad no longer starts with a Longrifle. (3 pistol and sword loadout by default)
Shuriken Pistols now make enemy infantry hit receive 15% more damage for 4 seconds.
Pathfinder Gear:
Grants the whole squad Longrifles in addition to its current effects.
Longrifle damage per hit set to 21. (6 dps)
Longrifle teardown increased from 0.75 to 1.25.
Longrifle cooldown reduced from 1 to 0.5.
Longrifle reload reduced from 3-3 to 2-2.
Kinetic Pulse now disables combat while being used. (bug prevention)
Avatar of Khaine:
Avatar Blade damage per hit increased from 240 to 270. (80 dps to 90 dps)
Imperial Guard
The Guard have likewise had some considerable discussion both in feedback and internally. For now, we’re offering a couple quality of life boosts for Spotters before we commit to more.
Artillery Spotter Squad:
Incendiary Shells damage over time increased from 7 to 14.
Incendiary Shells damage over time duration reduced from 20 seconds to 10 seconds.
Mortar and Incendiary Shells can now fire into the Fog of War.
Ordo Malleus
We are mostly happy with Ordo Malleus’ performance in the mid to late game but have noted that the faction struggles to reach that phase of the game in a winnable state.
The Brother-Captain has unusual difficulty defending himself in melee specifically against faster opponents so this We are the Hammer buff should provide a noticeable enough boost to his damage output early on to discourage swarming him in melee.
Purgations receive a substantial rework in their Incinerator weapon system that is designed to make their suppression more reliable across a variety of targets.
From the beta, we are rolling back the bonus splash on the Nemesis Power Sword and the Operatives melee skill increase. We believe their current bonuses to be sufficient for their intended strength.
Brother-Captain:
We are the Hammer and We are the Hammer (Improved) now grants the Brother-Captain 3 power_melee_pvp damage in radius 5 per melee attack in addition to its current effects.
Default Sword damage per hit increased from 41 to 46. (27.33 dps to 33.28 dps)
Nemesis Force Sword damage per hit increased from 60 to 80. (40 dps to 50 dps)
Blessed Aegis health to energy conversion ratio increased from 3.5:1 to 4:1.
Blessed Aegis now grants 100 hp in addition to its other effects.
Inquisitorial Storm Troopers:
Trooper red yield reduced from 7 to 6.
Inquisitorial Operatives:
Fallback Plan hotkey moved from T to Q.
Melta Bombs now stack with other sources.
Purgation Squad:
Purge By Fire! range increased from 15 to 20.
Incinerator default courage damage reduced from 60 to 0.
Incinerator distant damage modifier increased from 0.8 to 1.
Incinerator now applies 100 courage damage on enemy infantry hit for 1.5 seconds in a radius of 3. Once applied, the weapon reapplies 100 courage damage in radius 3 so long as the weapon fires on the same target every 2 seconds.
Grey Knight Terminators:
Health regeneration increased from 1 hp/s to 2 hp/s.
Paladin Squad:
Health regeneration increased from 1 hp/s to 2 hp/s.
Orks
We will continue to monitor Ork economy but haven’t seen anything particularly convincing or damning in current reviews. Use Yer Choppas! is something we’ve received feedback from on numerous occasions so we wish to see how some proposed nerfs to it will perform.
One last suggestion that will be going in is a quality of life bonus for Stikkbommaz who have been underused as of late. Stikkbommaz as well as other units are a point of discussion in the next patch for the Orks.
Warboss:
Use Yer Choppas! melee skill increase reduced from 40 to 20.
Mekboy:
Battery Pack cost increased from 100/25 to 120/25.
Stikkbommaz:
Stunbomb vehicle stun duration increased from 4 seconds to 6 seconds.
Space Marines
We are aware of performance issues regarding Space Marines and will bring them more in line incrementally. For now, we believe Scouts to be the biggest instigator of these issues for the faction as a whole and we address some cost concerns on the Techmarine in particular.
The team has several other concerns that have been brought up as a result of feedback but wish to avoid swinging the pendulum too hard in one patch while other factions are moving far less swiftly.
One return from a former patch is Combat Shotguns regaining their total damage. This change has not had the impact on the squad we had hoped it would have and believe the population and regeneration tweaks will hit the unit more meaningfully and with more precision on their exact issues.
Techmarine:
Melta Gun cost increased from 100/30 to 140/30.
Artificer Armor cost increased from 110/25 to 120/25.
Bionics cost increased from 100/20 to 120/20.
Refractor Field cost increased from 110/20 to 120/25.
Scout Squad:
Sergeant population cost increased from 3 to 4. (upkeep increased to match)
Elite Training health and energy regen bonus reduced from 1.5 hp/s + e/s to 0.5 hp/s + e/s.
Combat Shotgun close range damage modifier increased from 0.9 to 1.
Combat Shotgun medium range damage modifier increased from 0.8 to 0.85.
Tyranids
We heard your concerns regarding the new Deathspitters performance but we want to give our player base a bit more time to experiment with them before we consider them to be underperforming.
There has also been some rumblings about the strength of the faction as an entirety but we’ll take this one slow.
We’re rolling back an experimental cost shuffle on Warriors and Raveners in the beta due to the response to that shift being mixed. We’ll continue to discuss the state of Tyranids in the coming patch next year. As for the Barbed Strangler, it was initially a bug fix regarding their health values but the team felt it was a trivial enough amount to be worth simply removing.
Ravener Alpha:
Ravener Tunnel Exit red on death reduced from 15 to 10. (matches the Entrance)
Warrior Brood:
Barbed Strangler upgrade no longer reduces health by 10 per model.
Venom Brood:
Deathspitter damage per hit increased from 24 to 26.
This comment is currently awaiting admin approval, join now to view.