Period: September 14, 2025 Total Commits: 8
Hey, quick one today. We focused on making practice matches smarter, getting you back into games after disconnects, and tightening up the early match flow.
What’s New
- 120s pick-phase countdown
- Added a clear 120-second timer bar to the initial unit selection screen that drains from green to red and shows the remaining seconds. Keeps everyone on the same page at the start.
- Also cleaned up a duplicate “Game ended: unknown” toast that could pop on timeout.
- 3v3 only, streamlined lobbies
- We’ve narrowed matchmaking to a single mode: 3v3. Max players are now 6 (3 per team), and the UI reflects the 3/3 caps so it’s obvious when a side is full.
- Automatic game rejoin
- If you reconnect while a game you’re in is starting or already in progress, the client now detects that and drops you straight back into the match. You can still complete unit selection after a reconnect, so you’re not locked out if you lagged during the draft.
- Team-tinted maps
- The arena background now shifts by team: blue for Team A, purple for Team B. It also swaps cleanly when you change views with R, so orientation is clearer in PvP.
- New content and balance touch-ups
- Brambleback minion added (config + sprites). Sky Drone got a stat pass.
What Got Fixed
- No more negative gold
- Added gold checks across the board: level-ups, tower placement, spawn assignments, upgrades. If you can’t afford it, the action won’t go through and the grid stays clean. Bots also fixed a double-counting issue when planning level purchases.
- Stronger server-side ownership and validation
- Upgrading teammates’ towers/spawns is blocked now with better error messages (position and actual owner shown). Added spawn location to “maximum level” errors to make it clearer what failed and where.
- Bot upgrade behavior
- Bots won’t try to upgrade things they can’t afford. They clear out invalid goals when a teammate already upgraded, and only log errors for their own actions. Less noise, fewer dead-end goals.
- UI/UX polish
- Spawn upgrade clicks are registered reliably. Right-click closes spawn panels. The level-up button waits until all players finish selection. “Game not found” shows on the loading screen instead of being a mystery hang.
- Notifications vs errors
- Routine gameplay messages (not enough gold, waiting for players, failed placement) are now lightweight notifications. Full-screen errors are reserved for actual unrecoverable issues.
Under the Hood
- Bot strategy: economy first
- We rebalanced priorities so bots establish income before over-building towers.
- Probability shifts:
- Base preferences tilt toward minions (minion pref up to 0.7, tower down to 0.5).
- Early game defaults favor economy: tower ~0.3, minion ~0.55.
- Tower boosts from threat reduced; offense boost when low threat increased.
- Priority values:
- Minions: base up to 6, with strong early-game tiers (9 for <3 spawns, 8 for <6).
- Towers: base trimmed to 4; threat thresholds raised and responses softened.
- Spawn upgrades stay high (8–10) because ROI is strong.
- Net effect: better tower:minion ratios (closer to 1:1 or minion-favored), more dynamic play, and fewer panic towers.
- Personality-driven bots
- Favorite units now matter. Bots heavily weight preferred towers and minions during initial selection, level-ups, and placements. You’ll see more distinct playstyles instead of samey openings.
- Spawn upgrades prioritized
- Bots now explicitly target spawn upgrades (priority 8–10), especially level 0 spawns. They validate ownership and gold, track pending spends, and upgrade before spamming new spawns. Feels more human and builds a stronger late-game economy.
- Ownership model cleanup
- We moved off address-based ownership to username-based ownership across entities and systems. This untangles a bunch of edge cases and makes server validation straightforward.
- Robust recovery and logging
- Better state restoration on server restart, clearer timestamp ranges in errors, and more precise client-server error callbacks. The loading screen now shows state-specific messages and a proper spinner so you can see what it’s doing.
Gameplay Impact
- Early-game pace is cleaner: the pick timer sets expectations, and bots don’t stall the economy by over-building defense.
- Mid-game pressure should ramp naturally as spawn upgrades kick in and favorites create more distinct bot lineups.
- Fewer “why did that fail?” moments thanks to clearer notifications and ownership errors.