Welcome to Season 13! Going into the new season, all Leaderboards and PvP Points are reset, meaning that it’s a fresh start for YOUR Clan to be the new the dominating Clan of Gundar, and win the Seasonal Clan Tournament Grand Prize of 10,000 Gold for your Clan at the end of the Season in 3 months from now. Does your Clan have what it takes?
For a sneak peak at what’s coming up this season in Battlehouse games, check out the Developer Roadmap in the most recent edition of the Battlehouse Dev Blog.
FASCAM Shield/Repair Kit Updates
Your logistics officers are cleaning house, Commander. Infantry FASCAM Shields and Able Repair Kits are being built into your units’ Ballistic Armor, so those bulky items are no longer needed. If you really want them for the achievement, this is the last week you’ll be able to obtain them.
Starting on January 23, you’ll be able to return your FASCAM Shields and Able Repair Kits for a full ONP refund, so don’t delete them!
The achievement will no longer be obtainable after this current Event Prizes store closes on January 18.
Starting on January 23, Ballistic Armor will provide a FASCAM shield for non-elite infantry units, and Ballistic Armor will provide the Repair Kit effect for the Rifleman, BMP-1, Ka-50, Machine Gunner, Elite BMP-1, and Elite Ka-50.
Game Improvements
And that’s not all! We’ve also made another high in community demand quality-of-life improvement to the settings menu interface!
The immersion based “screen shake” effect that occurs after a building is destroyed is now optional, so players who are sensitive to the screen movement or players that experience additional game lag from the effects can turn them off if they choose to do so.
Head on into the settings menu, scroll down to the new “Enable Screen Shake” preference, toggle it over to “No”, and then hit “Apply” if you want to turn the effects off at any point.
Later this week, our Clan HQ chat service will be officially replaced with the new Thunder Run Community Discord Server, which offers exciting benefits like voice chat, better moderation features, and official “Ask a Dev” events.
The transition will finalize this Thursday, January 9th, 2020, at which point Clan HQ will close and begin directing visitors to join our Discord server.
In addition to the main Thunder Run channels, players from other Battlehouse Games will find an āOther Battlehouse Gamesā section in the Discord channel list, where they can continue chatting about their favorite Battlehouse game.
If there is enough player demand for any particular game, the Community team may choose to create a dedicated Discord server for that game.
Thank you for being a valued member of the Battlehouse Community, and we hope to see you on Discord!
š Happy New Year, Commanders! šThe Level 16 Sapper and Elite Stinger Gunner are here.
As with the recent max unit level increases, your Level 16 Sapper/Elite Stinger Gunners 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. As long as you have TOC12 and the new building levels for your Academy and Barracks, you can upgrade away!
L15 -> L16 Sapper Stats
L15 -> L16 Elite Stinger Gunner Stats
Elite AH-64 Apache Updates
As pre-announced in the patch notes 2 weeks ago, the Elite AH-64 Apache gets an update to its space requirements. Effective today: the space requirement increases from 70 to 160.
Please note that this is part of a helicopter unit tier rebalancing that also saw the Elite AH-1Zs space requirement drop from 200 to 70, and the Elite OH-58s from 160 to 115.
End of Season 12 Clan Tournament
From January 2nd – January 9th, 2020, rally your Clan and head to the regional map for your chance to be the strongest Clan of Season 12!
Be one of the Top Clans with the most Clan PvP Points to win between 3,000-10,000 Gold, divided evenly among the top 10 members of your clan.
Tournament ends on January 9th, 2020 at 1700 GMT, at which point winners will be announced, prizes awarded, and leaderboards will be reset for the new season. It’s important to note that you should stay in the same Clan through the end of the tournament and for at least one hour afterward, until at least 1800 GMT to ensure your Clan’s prizes are scored correctly.
Season 13 Opens: January 9th, 2020
The new season will begin immediately after the end of the tournament.
For a sneak peak at what’s coming up next season in Battlehouse games, check out the Developer Roadmap in last week’s edition of the Battlehouse Dev Blog.
Are you all enjoying the new Leader Upgrade System? For those of you who already unlocked TOC12, new upgrades for the Leader Barracks and Leader Academy are here.
Weapons Lab is now upgradeable to L12.
Weapons Factory is now upgradeable to L12.
Take advantage of these upgrades to start training new Level 5 Leaders today!
Level 5 Security Team Leaders
Our training commanders mean serious business. Level 4 Security Teams are now trainable to Level 5, and the best part about it? You don’t need to acquire a bajillion sets of the L1 Leader to train it.
Utilize the new “Promotion Based Upgrade System” to upgrade any Level 4 leader to Level 5 by purchasing an L4 -> L5 Promotion item in the Leaders Section fo the Event Prizes Store.
Looking for more information on the new Leader Upgrade System? Read more here.
Game Improvements
And that’s not all! We’ve also made some improvements to the settings menu interface!
The settings menu is now scrollable, allowing for more player preference options.
A new setting option now gives players the ability to toggle the mousewheel scrolling behavior for in-game chat, and regional map zooming.
Soon more setting options will be added that allow players to toggle screen shaking effects, and in-game chat window orientation. Stay tuned!
Updated “Settings” Menu
Have feedback to share about this weekās releases? Let us know over in the “days-of-valor” channel within our TR Discord Server.
Heads up, Commander! The Level 16 Elite Rifleman and Elite Mortarman are here.
As with the recent max unit level increases, your Level 16 Elite Riflemen/Mortarmen 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. As long as you have TOC12 and the new building levels for your Academy and Barracks, you can upgrade away!
In response to recent player feedback, you’ll have more room for Elite AH-1Zs going forward. Their space requirements have dropped from 200 to 70.
Your Elite OH-58F pilots were getting a little jealous, so your grease monkeys whipped up a few improvements. Space requirements have dropped from 160 to 115. Their hit points have also dramatically increased.
Your Elite AH-64s haven’t changed just yet, but be warned: your mechanics report that they simply can’t maintain a size requirement of 70 on these bad boys forever. On January 2, 2020, the space requirement will rise from 70 to 140.
Have feedback to share about this week’s updates? Let us know over in the “days-of-valor” channel within our TR Discord Server.
For a sneak peak at what’s coming up next season in Battlehouse games, check out the Developer Roadmap in this this week’s edition of the Battlehouse Dev Blog.
Welcome to the 12th 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. Without further adieu, here’s bh-nirgal to talk about upcoming projects in the current Developer Roadmap (all of these are approved by management, and the order of reporting reflects the order of release):
All Games – Improved Player Preferences Interface
Our user interface works in strange ways. Making them expand and scroll is not trivial, but it is necessary. By updating this interface to have scroll buttons and more options, we can give the player control over more comfort and ease of use options. This is a very high priority change and will affect all of the games. Once complete, the first options to be added will be toggle mouse wheel scrolling direction, toggle chat vertical orientation, toggle screen shake explosion effects. This is the first project and will be finished before there are any further new content projects for any of the games. Bear in mind, some content updates are already in the games and are just on timed releases, so you may see some new features activate even if this project isnāt done.
Firestrike – Sapper Unit
Our second project is the Sapper Unit for Firestrike players. You may have seen the preview of the mine detection code demonstrated on the dev-tracker channel. Firestrike will be the first game to get a detector unit, and it will be the Sapper. The main part of this feature is working, but a few things need to be fine-tuned to avoid breaking things. The Firestrike Sapper detects mines, but is not meant to disable or destroy them. Players will need to use their Sapper to guide other units around deadly minefields.Ā The Sapper is the best unit for demolishing buildings, so heās a strong counter to the new HESCO barriers. He does poor damage against mobile units, so it shouldnāt affect the current rock/paper/scissors balance between the three uppermost tier unit types. Unlike the Thunder Run and Days of Valor version, this Sapper doesn’t die automatically after deployment and can carry quite a few satchel charges.
All Games – Power Generation/Damage Mechanics Overhaul
Our third project is a tech upgrade for all games. Currently, all of the games use power generators to determine the rate of fire for turrets. When damaged, a generator stops providing power. Under the current mechanics, a generator with 100% of its hit points provides 100% of its output rating, and a generator with 99.999% of its hit points provides 0% of its output rating. We can do better.
I plan to have two optional mechanics for generators, so they can be added into the game titles as needed. Generators can have the current maximum power output rating, a proportionate power output threshold (power output is equal to the proportion of remaining hit points), a half power output threshold (flat cut of 50% of power), and a zero power output threshold.
Letās use the L9 Generator from Thunder Run as an example. It provides 4500 power and has 28000 hit points. Letās give it a theoretical proportionate output threshold of 75%. This means that from 28000 hit points down to 21000 hit points, it would give a power output adjusted by whatever percent of hitpoints the generator still had. So at 26500 hit points, the generator has 94% of its health, so it would output 4230 power instead of 4500 power. Letās give it a theoretical half power threshold of 50%. This means that down to 14000 hit points, it will output 2250 power instead of 4500 power. If a generator has both a proportionate threshold and a half threshold, it would apply the higher one first. Anything below the half power level would result in 0 power, so an L9 generator with those theoretical stats and 13999 hit points would then give 0 power.
By adding these as distinct stats, a generator could conceivably give proportionate power from 100% HP to 0% HP, or give half power from 100% HP to 0% HP. This means variety in games, and the ability to improve these stats as the building upgrades.
All Games – Crafting Update
Our fourth project is another large technology update. The only visual change players will see is that Ambush Points will become craftable and there will be scroll buttons so the number of Minefields isnāt hard-capped at 28.
Under the hood, this is a bit more complicated. A lot of our crafting systems were crammed together and had toggles to decide what got crafted and what interface was displayed. Around the time that Firestrike was released, a member of the team carved out the functions used for crafting turrets and made it a standalone feature. I expanded that feature to allow the system to deploy weapons to armed TOCs and Central Computers, armed buildings (you havenāt seen these yet), and armed barriers (you havenāt seen these yet either). What weāll be doing next is making a similar standalone crafting system that handles āgridā items (like the Minefields with their letter/number names). Ambush Points will be a similar āgridā item.
Craftable strike teams will replace the current ābuy it and drop it inā model in Thunder Run and Days of Valor. Unlike landmines, crafted strike teams will not self-destruct the item when triggered. The only major difference is you will no longer be able to accidentally buy more strike teams than you have ambush points for, since youāll just craft one into your available ambush points.
This update will allow the future release of new mines and strike teams.
WSE & BFM – Dragon and Elite Dragon Unit
Our fifth project is fairly small, and will be a new content release. War Star Empire will receive the Dragon air unit, and Battlefront Mars will receive the Elite Dragon air unit. This should be delivered during the development of the crafting update, since itās a relatively simple process.
MF – Unit levels, Radiation Tower, and EMP Cannon
Our sixth project is fairly small, and will be a new content release. Mars Frontier will receive the Radiation Tower and EMP Cannons for their turret platforms, and will receive new levels for the Detonator, Phantom Detonator, Elevation Droid, Curiosity, and the Opportunity Central Computer defender. This should be delivered during the development of the crafting update, since itās a relatively simple process.
TR & DV – Vault Update
Our seventh project is a fairly small content adjustment. The Hardware protection of the Vault in Thunder Run and Days of Valor will be significantly increased to the point that there will always be enough for base defender and base building repairs. There might not be much more than that, but even if you log in to a completely destroyed base youāll be able to jump back into the fight. This should be delivered during the development of the crafting update, since itās a relatively simple process.
All Games – Consumable Ammo
Our eighth project is a technology update. Players will not see anything right away, since itās only one step in several towards the finished project. Right now, thereās only one way to balance how often a player can use an ability is its cooldown stat. Most weapons have cooldowns of less than a second to a couple of seconds.Ā Some abilities are powerful and shouldnāt be used more than once or twice in a fight. Long cooldowns can be easily ācheesedā by retreating and attacking again.
Instead of relying on cooldowns, weāre going to add the ability to require consumable ammo and items to certain powerful abilities. Examples would be the UH-60ās troop deployment (instead of having them destroy themselves to launch the troop), the future Elite UH-60ās troop deployment, and the future Elite Sniperās stealth ability. The ammo/item would be stored in an invisible equipment slot on the unit and would just appear as an ammo counter in the unitās stats.
This would be an internal mechanic until the rest of the needed support structure is done.
All Games – Build/Research Time updates while building/tech is in progress
Our ninth project will be a function that will check for updates to build and research times when you log in. Weāve planned some time requirement nerfs (mostly in certain buildings), but the current system only records when you started and how much time you needed when you started, so it doesnāt update if the time is reduced later.
Weāre going to fix that. It will record the total time needed when you start, and check when you log in if this has changed. If it has, it will update the time remaining. This update function will check the times whenever you apply a build time boost item, and will adjust the time accordingly. Be warned, removing the boost will increase the time back to where it was (otherwise you could store multiple build time boosts and apply/remove them multiple times in order to get buildings instantly for free).
All Games – Stats Display
Our tenth project will be the addition of āimpact auraā stats to a unitās display. This will show a new stat row for each āauraā, with its strength value. This will allow you to see exactly how much longer a stun will be, or how much more a slowdown will be. Weāll be adding an additional damage vs icon to finally record the difference between light and heavy vehicles in Thunder Run and Days of Valor. This is a project that will be open to player input, so if you have suggestions let us know!
All Games – On-Shoot Event Triggers
Our final project for the quarter is another technology update. Right now, units and buildings can trigger an event based on when they get damaged, when an enemy comes near, or when they get destroyed. This is used to spawn response and security teams. A mechanic needs to be added to allow events to trigger when a weapon or ability is triggered, so that the UH-60 and Elite UH-60 will be able to deploy their troops without destroying themselves.
Sadly, projects seven and ten wonāt make much difference to players in the coming quarter, since weāll need to add the ammunition crafting and delivery mechanisms before they can be fully implemented. Weāll get there with time.
Stay up to date every day on whatās being developed on the dev-tracker channel here.
Looking for an update on where the Dev Team currently stands regarding various recent community suggestions? Check out our “Voice of the Commander” trackers here:
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!
Back in mid-October Gundar Arms Industries gave us TOC12, and the TOC12 content continues to roll on with new top-tier upgrades available for your Weapons systems.
Weapons Lab is now upgradeable to L15.
Weapons Factory is now upgradeable to L15.
Take advantage of these upgrades to start researching new Mine and Turret levels today!
New Mine and Turret Levels
Here’s a breakdown of all the new Mine and Turret levels available to you after achieving the Weapons Lab/Factory upgrades:
Mines:
Anti-Infantry Mines get 4 new levels and are upgradeable to L22.
Anti-Armor Mines get 2 new levels and are upgradeable to L22.
Anti-Tank Mines get 4 new levels and are upgradeable to L16.
Anti-Air Mines get 4 new levels and are upgradeable to L22.
Turrets:
MG Tower gets 2 new levels and is upgradeable to L32.
Mortar gets 2 new levels and is upgradeable to L32.
FASCAM gets 4 new levels and is upgradeable to L32.
TOW gets 2 new levels and is upgradeable to L32.
HEL gets 4 new levels and is upgradeable to L32.
Howitzer gets 4 new levels and is upgradeable to L32.
Quadmount gets 4 new levels and is upgradeable to L32.
C-RAM gets 4 new levels and is upgradeable to L32.
Elite AH-1Z Boost/Sale
As originally outlined in Issue #9 of the Battlehouse Dev Blog, this week we welcome an explosive boost and blueprint sale for the Elite AH-1Z. Effective now:
For one week only: The blueprint price has been slashed by more than 50%. Get them while theyāre hot!
Hit Points have been increased by 600 at all levels.
Build time has been capped at 2 hours for higher levels.
Build cost has been reduced.
Research Hardware costs have been drastically reduced.
Like the Elite MQ8B, the Elite AH-1Z now buffs its companions. When flying under escort by an Elite AH-1Z, units take 25% less damage from incoming SAM fire.
Current SAM weapons are the Stinger Gunner, Elite Stinger Gunner, and Elite Nimr.
There are rumors of a SAM turret in the works, so you might want to take advantage of this sale now, Commander!
New Elite AH-1Z Stats from L14 -> L15
New Leader Upgrade System
Getting tired too many duplicate leaders taking up precious space in your warehouse while you work towards those high level leader upgrades? A new Leader Upgrade System is here!
Upgrading Leaders:
There are now 2 different ways you can upgrade your leaders:
The “Merge” Upgrade System (Old Method) – This is the system that you’re already used to. Purchase duplicate L1 leaders and combine them to make more powerful higher level leaders. For a full guide on how to upgrade leaders via the merge method, check out our YouTube Tutorial here.
Players that already have leader upgrades in process, or already have combinable duplicate leaders in their Warehouse will see the old “merge” based upgrade system when you enter the leader upgrade menu.
The “Promote” Upgrade System (New Method) – Players that don’t have any duplicate leaders will see the new “promote” upgrade system. Promoting your leader with the new system only requires 1 copy of the leader you’re trying to upgrade and a new “Promotion Order” item that can be purchased from the Event Prizes Store (in the Leaders section in front of Alpha Team).
Promotion Orders are more expensive than a leader, but the Hardware cost and time required to Promote is significantly less than combining multiple leaders.
And that’s not all, Commanders! Here’s a recap of all the Bug Fixes from the past week:
Fixed some obscure text references to the GAZ Tigr on some rare items. This should be the last of the WWII assets that were still referencing their modern-war counterpart names.
An error message that was appearing when viewing certain turret-related missions is now fixed.
An error message that was appearing when viewing stats of the Stinger, Elite Stinger, and Elite Nimr is now fixed. These were related to the new Elite AH-1Z features.
Have feedback to share about this weekās releases? Let us know over in the “days-of-valor” channel within our TR Discord Server.
Welcome to the 11th 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. Without further adieu, here’s bh-nirgal to talk about some updates coming down the road for all Battlehouse games:
Improvements to All Games!
Your dev team took a little break for the American Thanksgiving holiday, but came back refreshed and delivered a whirlwind of content. š¦šŖ
As discussed in the last developer blog, content patches were completed for all of the games:
Firestrike Updates
Starting on December 12, players will be able to build HESCO Barriers. All tiers have access to this new defensive building.
Tier 16 goes live on December 26, bringing new levels for all buildings, new levels for all turrets, new levels for all landmines, and new levels for the top-tier units.
A new minesweeper unit, the Sapper (not quite the same as the suicide unit in Thunder Run, as it doesnāt kill itself), is mostly complete. We need to fine-tune its ability to reveal landmine positions before releasing it into the wild, so stay tuned for that update, probably next month.
Mars Frontier Updates
You asked, we delivered. The Central Computer level 7 build time is now 14 days (down from 30).
Starting on December 26, players will be able to upgrade the Central Computer to level 8. All production, storage, and research buildings get new levels.
The Mining Droid, Heavy Miner, Blaster Droid, and Excavator Droid level cap has been raised to level 13. It requires new Robotics Lab levels to research level 11 and up. More units will get an increased level cap later.
The turret conversion system is now in place. Currently only the Light Rail Gun, Defensive Cannon, and LRAT Cannon are enabled, but we’ll enable the Radiation Tower and EMP Cannon at a later date.
Battlefront Mars Updates
Starting on December 26, players will be able to upgrade the Central Computer to level 9. All production, storage, and research buildings get new levels.
The Marineās level cap has been raised by two.
The Elite Rainmaker has been introduced into the game. This spiffed up version of the Rainmaker does more damage and does splash damage.
Astute players may have noticed the presence of Elite Rainmakers on some single player maps. These have all been replaced with Mercenary Rainmakers with their original stats to avoid changing the balance of gameplay. The new Elite Rainmaker is more powerful than the one the AI was using.
The turret conversion system is now in place. Currently only the Auto-Cannon, Thunder Cannon, and Devastator are enabled, but we’ll enable the Radiation Tower, EMP Cannon, and LRAT at a later date.
War Star Empire Updates
Starting on December 26, players will be able to upgrade the Central Computer to level 9. All production, storage, and research buildings get new levels.
The Shock Trooper, Tracker, Avenger, and Gun Runner have had their level cap raised by three. This change goes live on December 12.Ā More increased level caps are in the pipeline.
Thunder Run/Days of Valor Updates
The Elite AH-1Z has some (we hope) fun new mechanics. It will be on sale tomorrow, so if you donāt already have it, nowās the time to grab it and check it out.
Weāll be returning to Quality of Life improvements now. The Player Preferences interface has been next on the list, so expect to see some updates for that soon. Other than small contents patches, like new levels for existing units and buildings, expect mostly UI improvements for the next several months. Weāll be fixing quite a bit of under-the-hood tech before the next round of brand new content.
Stay up to date every day on whatās being developed on the dev-tracker channel here.
Looking for an update on where the Dev Team currently stands regarding various recent community suggestions? Check out our “Voice of the Commander” trackers here:
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!
Heads up, Commander! In an effort to help improve game balance for the long haul, a huge 50% price slash on core unit blueprints is here. This is part of an ongoing project to rebalance the lower level content tiers and make less-used core units more accessible to players in the early game and beyond.
The “core unit” category consists of all units that you don’t need a blueprint to unlock: the Rifleman, Mortarman, Panzerschreck, Sniper, GPW, M4A1 Mortar, M8 Greyhound, M12 GMC, M4A2 Sherman, M26 Pershing, OH-58 Kiowa, AH-1 Cobra, and AH-64 Apache.
Effective today:
The L13 Blueprint for most core units has been reduced from 250k Hardware to 125k Hardware, with the price increase per level dropping from 25k to 15k.
L13 old price 250k, new price 125k
L14 old price 275k, new price 140k
L15 old price 300k, new price 155k
Exceptions:
The L13 Sniper blueprint is 100k Hardware, with a 10k Hardware per level increase.
The helicopter units all start at L11 instead of L13, so their prices are:
L11: 100k
L12: 120k
L13: 140k
L14: 160k
L15: 180k
All of the aforementioned blueprints can be purchased during Hardware Event Weeks in the Hardware Prize Store. Good hunting, Commanders!
Have feedback to share about this week’s updates? Let us know over in the “days-of-valor” channel within our TR Discord Server.
