Warhammer Warhammer 40,000: Sanctus Reach - 3D turn-based strategy from Slitherine

[grudgebringer]

It seems that morale system as it is now isn't working at all. Even if unit have BROKEN state they still attack as they normally do without any noticeable penalties to their actions. So, bear that in mind when using flamethrowers, for example.

I'm glad that devs are on their way, but I'd like to see them fix core systems before adding any new features.

 

[Galdred]

It seems that morale system as it is now isn't working at all. Even if unit have BROKEN state they still attack as they normally do without any noticeable penalties to their actions. So, bear that in mind when using flamethrowers, for example.

I'm glad that devs are on their way, but I'd like to see them fix core systems before adding any new features.

It is probably just a bug. I am pretty sure they could not shoot during beta when morale was broken.
Flamethrowers did work, though, because it was not counted as an attack (ie did not have to target an enemy units).

And actually, it might be hard to fix some core features without adding new stuff:
I am reworking the armor penetration model in my mod (so that penetration and armor are not separate roll: currently, the target makes a heavy armor roll that does not depend on penetration, then the shooter makes a penetration roll that does not depend on the heavy armor), but given that the Orks have very few anti tank units (deffkopter with rokkit launchas, mega nobz, DeffDreds and Killa Kans in melee, Gorkanaut in melee, and battlewagon with SoopaKannon), making so that a heavy bolter of big shoota cannot penetrate heavy armor might make things very difficult for them if we don't add AT units, as the existing ones are underwhelming (the deffcopter die easily, and the other ones would have a hard time against a kiting tank).
I wanted to repurpose Flash Gitz, but that cannot work, because the number of shots is fixed.

 

[grudgebringer]

More balance changes and QoL improvements in beta patch

Beta v1.0.8 Change List

Key changes
• Force selection - You now get a much greater choice of units on the force selection screen. You will get far more of your upgraded units and in general much more choice.
• Force selection - The list of units is now sorted by cost and type so your best units are at the top and grouped in a much more readable way making the screen much easier to navigate.
• Extreme damage variation - the combat formula was generating too many extreme results for weak units shooting at armoured targets. This has been reduced so things are now more predictable.
• AI Improvements - the AI will now move its units in to a more effective range before shooting. It also does not save shots any longer and so fires at the player much more often. These two changes significantly improve the ability of the AI.
• AI - a bug preventing the AI from charging and meleeing has been fixed.
• AI Unit selection - the AI was selecting too many of certain unit types in initial skirmishes. It now brings a much more balanced force.
• Wreck removal - Destroyed vehicles can now be shot or melee attacked to destroy them and remove blockages.
• AI - will now remove wrecks that block its path.
• Morale - AI units who had low morale, but already had a target were ignoring the morale rules and attacking their target. The bug has been fixed so AI units now behave correctly when in a low morale state.
• The Hour of the Wolf campaign has been rebalanced so that Skirmish maps produce better battles. Extremes of force size and map size have been removed making things far more balanced. We've also increased the force size in some of the later skirmishes.
• Massive Speed up - there is now an option in the settings to change the movement speed. You can turn the speed boost on which makes units move at approx 10 times normal speed. This greatly speeds up the game for players who just want to get on with it and not admire the action!
• Zoom - we've greatly increased the distance you can zoom out. To ensure it does not cause issues for slower machines we've linked this to an "Advanced Camera" option in the options. When Advanced Camera is on you can zoom out much further.
• Camera Controls - we've greatly increased the angle you can drop the camera to and you can now have an over the shoulder view point to get a really close up look at the action. To ensure it does not cause issues for slower machines we've linked this to an "Advanced Camera" option in the options. When Advanced Camera is on you can drop the camera angle right down in to the action.
• Gorkanaut & Knight - both have had their damage increased.
• Master Crafted weapons - these have been buffed as they were not powerful enough.
• Weapon Balance - Bolters & Shoota ranges all increased by 1.
• Flamers - now correctly are prevented from attacking when their morale is too low or they are stunned.
• Invincible units - a bug where units sometimes became impossible to hit has been fixed.
• Shootaboyz & Gretchin - after the other balance changes these became slightly too good so have had accuracy reduced.
• Power weapons - these have been given much less variation in damage so all power weapons are a similar level of ability.
• Deffdread - after other balance changes the Deffdread became too tough and has had armour reduced.

Other changes
• Autosaves - the game now autosaves the in mission progress to "Autosave". It was previously only saving at the campaign level. If for any reason you want to return to the last saved point in a battle just load this up.
• Campaign Autosaves - the game was incorrectly generating a campaign autosave after every battle. The intention was to generate one file and update it after each cattle. This has been fixed so you now only have one campaign autosave per game, greatly reducing the clutter in the saved game list.
• Drop Pod deployment - In mission 1 the Drop Pod is now automatically deployed. Some users were missing the fact they could land it and there was a dreadnaught in it.
• Enemy Movement feedback - the Tooltip now shows how many movement points an enemy unit has.
• UI Clean up - various pop ups and text boxes have been improved to make them cleaner and tidier.
• Version Number - the options screen now shows the version number of the game.
• XP Bug - a bug where some units were deploying with negative experience has been fixed.
• Particle Bug - A bug where particles on transport loaded units could cause the game to crash has been fixed.
• Shrapnel ammo was causing a nasty bug so was removed. Units with shrapnel ammo will have it substituted for Frag Ammo.
• Unclear objective on Sacred mountain - Capture and hold just meant capture. It now working as intended.
• UI Improvement - buttons that control window mode, screen shake etc have been changed so its clearer which option is selected.
• Advanced skirmish bug - a bug where you could set the size of the skirmish force to be bigger than what is supported has been fixed.
• Mouse zoom speed - we've added a setting in the options to allow you to control the speed of the mouse wheel. Some users experienced very slow zoom and this lets them configure it how they want.
• Level up/No Skill bug - a bug where units were not gaining abilities/skills on leveling up has been fixed.
• Units losing XP - a bug where units were sometimes losing XP has been fixed.
• Update notification - a bug where an update notification sent you to an external web page has been fixed.
• Gretchin death sound - a bug where Gretchin were sometimes playing an Ork death sound has been fixed.
• Artillery camera - a bug where the camera was not following the action on artillery strikes has been fixed.
• Smoke Grenade exploit - a bug where smoke grenades and melee attacks combined to get free attacks has been fixed.
• UI Panel hiding - a bug where the UI panel would sometimes not hide on the enemy turn has been fixed.
• Metal Frag & Tempest Ammo - stats re-balanced due to merger with Shrapnel ammo.
• Modreds Ridge - Grukk and his crew have been delayed from entering the fight to avoid overwhelming the player.
• Sky Hunt building - removed a 'floating' building from sky hunt.
• Minimap control - the J button now adjusts the size of the minimap and toggles it on/off.
• Editor - the name of the user campaign was black text on a black background... so a little hard to read.
• Wolf Priests Text - the Wolf Priests Hammer had a missing string.

So... it seems that this patch sums up all of my problems with the latest official build so far. Time to try it out.

 

[grudgebringer]

It seems that morale system as it is now isn't working at all. Even if unit have BROKEN state they still attack as they normally do without any noticeable penalties to their actions. So, bear that in mind when using flamethrowers, for example.

I'm glad that devs are on their way, but I'd like to see them fix core systems before adding any new features.

It is probably just a bug. I am pretty sure they could not shoot during beta when morale was broken.
Flamethrowers did work, though, because it was not counted as an attack (ie did not have to target an enemy units).

Looks like I didn't pay enough attention to it, the morale definitely affects unit actions - they lose accuracy and reaction fire, can't move in certain directions, etc. There were a couple of bugs, but now they seem to be fixed with that latest beta patch.

 

[grudgebringer]

Another beta patch released

Beta v1.0.11 Change List

LoS/Cover Fix - Fixed various bugs that were causing LoS and Cover to not work correctly (note there still might be a few remaining in some missions e.g. 'Back from the Brink'

XP / Abilities bug - Fixed a bug that causing units to occasionally not get abilities

Melee Shock - Fixed a bug where Melee attacks weren't causing Morale reduction

Super Heavy Melee - Increased Knight and Gorkanaut Melee damage, now fixed

Skirmish Force Selection - Campaign Skirmishes will now attempt to pick your levelled up units first in the Selection Pool

Force points rebalance - Slight rebalance of force points cost

Power Armour Increase - Slightly increased the effectiveness of Power Armour

Reaction Display Bug - Fixed Reaction Display Tiles that were showing the wrong information

Transports – loading/unloading now takes 1 action (a way to prevent infantry unloading, shooting and reloading as its an exploit, especially for MP)

View Shading Option - Added View Shading option to the options menu. With this option, units are lit from all angles, making them stand out more

Fixed jumpack units - Fixed a bug that prevented Jumpack units from firing when hovering above terrain fixed

Spirit of the Wolf Ability - Fixed a bug that was causing Spirit of the Wolf to heal Vehicles

Scorched Knight Lore "oversight" - After "Sky Hunt" The Scorched Knight will no longer appear in Skirmish battles (because he's supposed to be dead!)

Mainly just bugs and errors fixing, but also this

Meanwhile the team are working on v1.0.12 … and the first DLC

 

[*-*/\--/\~]

Another beta patch released

Beta v1.0.11 Change List

Transports – loading/unloading now takes 1 action (a way to prevent infantry unloading, shooting and reloading as its an exploit, especially for MP)

Mainly just bugs and errors fixing, but also this

Meanwhile the team are working on v1.0.12 … and the first DLC

So they essentially fucked up any value the transports had. What reason do you now have to waste 240 points on a Rhino when you can take two extra squads for that price...

 

[Galdred]

Another beta patch released

Beta v1.0.11 Change List

Transports – loading/unloading now takes 1 action (a way to prevent infantry unloading, shooting and reloading as its an exploit, especially for MP)

Mainly just bugs and errors fixing, but also this

Meanwhile the team are working on v1.0.12 … and the first DLC

So they essentially fucked up any value the transports had. What reason do you now have to waste 240 points on a Rhino when you can take two extra squads for that price...

Indeed, it would have been much better to add a flag that an unit had disembarked to prevent unloading unit.reloading unit.
That said, Rhino can easily be recosted. They cost half as much in the TT.

 

[Commissar Draco]

Looks like another Slitherine game; worth picking a year after release fully patched and all DLCs added. At least its better than this turd Battle for Tallarn was.

 

[LESS T_T]

First expansion is Orks campaign: http://www.matrixgames.com/news/221...e.-.the.first.DLC.for.Sanctus.Reach.is.coming!

The Weirdboy is about to strike - the first DLC for Sanctus Reach is coming!

Big Redd was looking at the horizon: in front of him, corpses. Lots of corpses. Some were Orks, but many were clad in blue-grey armor, their shoulder pads yellow and black. Space Wolves. The big weirdboy reached for one of the helmets littering the ground and stared at it. He looked at the visor lenses soiled with blood and dirt, and grinned. He tossed the helmet as far as he could and bellowed a mighty Waaagh! The voices of a million boyz behind his back joined in, a deafening cry which meant only one thing: destruction was upon Alaric Prime, and there would be no end to it.


Warhammer 40,000: Sanctus Reach is back with its first expansion! In Legacy of the Weirdboy you will play as Big Redd, a ferocious weirdboy. You will lead a mighty Ork horde, with the goal of unleashing a terrible strike on the Imperial defences, one which could seal the fate of the whole Sanctus Reach sector.

Following the release of Sanctus Reach fans and players gave us a lot of feedback on the game, and on what they would like to see. We listened, and we put tons of work into following that feedback.

In this first DLC you will have at your disposal several new units, many new abilities and plenty of new tactical options. Straylight have devoted the same extreme attention to detail as they had for models in the base game, and the new models are gorgeous. We’ll show them in detail soon. The Ork faction has been revamped, and now they have full unit progression in their own campaign. The sense of immersion in the campaign is enhanced thanks to the new comic book style illustrations which capture the theme of the game and its setting.

We are very satisfied by how this title is shaping up and we are sure that Sanctus Reach fans won’t be disappointed! This is only the first of a long series of releases and our work has just begun! We will show and tell more about Legacy of the Weirdboy as we get closer to release, so stay tuned.

 

[Galdred]

Actually, Orks vs Marines could be more interesting, as camping an approaching ork horde should be easier for the AI than assaulting entrenched Space Marines.

 

[*-*/\--/\~]

Considering how OP the Orks were in the first campaign, this one might turn out being too easy. Besides, I have no interest in killing the "good" guys, so no thanks. :D

 

[grudgebringer]

More with a new patch:

v1.0.17 Changelog:
· New difficulty levels added
o "Initiate: Easy difficulty, your troops are much harder to kill"
o "Veteran: Standard difficulty with even forces on each side"
o "Grim Darkness: Hard difficulty with formidable waves of enemies"
· Level balance amendments based on new difficulties
· Improved AI for Orks and Space Wolves
· Added ability cooldowns to tooltips
· Fixed fast attack death animations
· Lowered volume of VP taken sound
· Skimmer units are no longer effected by Zone of Control
· Minor unit balance and stat fixes
· When orks 'spawn in' they have reduced actions and attacks
· Fixed victory conditions on some levels
· Fixed issue with LoS and Cover behaving incorrectly on diagonals
· Colour correction on environment tiles
· Fixed frag grenades for skyclaws
· Fixed flying vehicles not removing wrecks properly when above objects
· Fixed units spawning on top of wrecks
· Fixed LoS and cover issue with wrecks
· Fixed droppods destroying terrain objects when they shouldn't
· Fixed PlaceUnit function bug
· Fixed rad grenades not working
· Death of Glory mission - changed starting location of stormboyz
· Enemy reinforcements will not attack player VP's on capture VP missions, only on
· Capture and hold missions.
· Randomized enemy reinforcements spawn location.

Still waiting on DLC to come out. New units look rather cool:

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

 

[LESS T_T]

Weirdboy is on the loose now.



And more is coming:

Legacy of the Weirdboy is but the first of our planned DLCs for Sanctus Reach. We always knew we wanted to add more factions to the base game, and it has never been a secret. Right now Straylight are working hard on adding a brand new faction to the game. It’s the first and last line of defence of the Imperium, the brave army of Mankind. We’re talking of the Astra Militarum!

 

[Galdred]

Not much news, but according to the Steam forums, the campaign is better.

Good job devs! After 2h playing (and getting my♥♥♥♥♥handed to me twice in the first mission on Grim Dark) I must say so far I really like it.

- Letting me pick the ability after a lvl up is genious
- Also I like very much that you can now set the speed of the units move and the animation to your liking. It makes for a much more fluid gameplay!
- The AI seems much smarter now

Not sure though if there have to be THAT many units already in mission one, but hey.

So far so good, I hope this will keeping on like this

They have worked a lot on the game patch wise, so it is probably much better than when I tried it.
They also plan to add Imperial Guard Astra Militarum next, which was to be expected, but rather underwhelming (as we'll end up with the same races than in Armageddon, or Final Liberation).
The trailer definitely has a nice Final Liberation vibe.

Edit: That said, there was still a lot of work to do to match Final Liberation, let alone surpass it, so I am really looking forward to someone else giving it a shot (I got burnt out during beta).

 

[*-*/\--/\~]

Not much news, but according to the Steam forums, the campaign is better.

They also plan to add Imperial Guard Astra Militarum next, which was to be expected, but rather underwhelming (as we'll end up with the same races than in Armageddon, or Final Liberation).
The trailer definitely has a nice Final Liberation vibe.

On a side note, anyone have any idea why the hell they replaced something as iconic as imperial guard with that damn 'astra militarum', which sounds like a name for a junior ballet group?

 

[vonAchdorf]

Copyright

 

[*-*/\--/\~]

Like... whose copyright? First Imperial Guard codex came out in 1989, thought they would have acquired it by now. :D

 

[vonAchdorf]

They couldn't copyright (trademark) Imperial Guard and therefore invented a term / trademark they own.

 

[Galdred]

They have the same problem with space marines actually.

 

[vonAchdorf]

Good that we now have Primaris Space Marines :D

 

[*-*/\--/\~]

They have the same problem with space marines actually.

Which kind of proves it's a nonexistent "problem" made up by some corporate cumbucket. Both terms have been used by GW for three decades and are closely associated with them, it's not like someone can suddenly steal them.

 

[Spectacle]

GW is obsessed with trademarks for some reason. Some years back they changed the names on all their paints to made up words that they could trademark.

 

[Drakron]

it's not like someone can suddenly steal them.

Well its not as of they own it either, Imperial Guard dates back to at least Napoleon so it was a existing name when they made then in WH40k, even Space Marines as a name is older, first usage was in Amazing Stories in the 1930's.

Giving then the usual WH40 Latinarium just allows then to own that name, even if its GW we are talking about I doubt they start going to reprint everything in their broken Latin.

 

[Galdred]

A good question indeed: what is the point? Who cares if they own the space marine trademark? I could call the characters of my game space marines or chaos warriors, and it would nor make them lose any fan not make me get any, so what is the point of abandoning their established lore names for some irrelevant trademark issues? At lest, Imperial Guard was very misleading (people would expect elite forces, not cannon fodder with such a name), but space marines to primaris marines would really be stupid (in case they really plan to phase them out).