Combat Rebalance Pt. 1

Greetings Leaders,

DomiNations Update 12.18 shapes up to be a massive release with the first wave of our Combat Rebalance initiative highlighted in our Road Ahead 2025 Post. We’re also implementing a second set of updates in our Replay rework! Both of these quality of life updates have a special write-up from the folks working directly on these projects to give insight into the process! In that same vein of ‘Quality of Life’, we’re adding a faster way to utilize Speed Ups to complete your upgrades. Update 12.18 also introduces the next Councilor, and the Manufactory now allows you to purchase Materials. Then, finally, minor UI and Graphical fixes.

Replay Reliability pt. 2

If you missed our write-up on the current status of the Replay work that went into this update, catch up on the full details ‘here’. To highlight, Replays have been undergoing a massive overhaul to correct and implement the many changes that have arrived in DomiNations. While the current state of Replays with update 12.18 offers markedly improved results, there is still more to be done before we’re ready to say we’re 100% complete. Be sure to check out the post to see what improvements were made, how replays got to where they were, and what we’ll be doing for the future!

Combat Rebalance Initiative - Fighters & Defenders

In our Road Ahead 2025 post, we discussed our plans to introduce incremental steps for rebalancing combat within DomiNations. 12.18 releases some changes to Fighters and Defenders, and to share some insight on this process, we have our Game Designer, RAH-66, to talk about the upcoming changes!

 

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Hello Leaders!

Today, we’re going to talk about the new series of updates we are working on called the Combat Rebalance Initiative. We want the DomiNations battle experience to be what YOU make it. Do you love setting up a Museum loadout for several different army compositions? We want you to feel empowered to try multiple strategies and remove any gates that prohibit you from doing so. Do you love watching attackers fall to your horde of defenders and insatiable Air Defense? We want to see you thrive and be an asset to your Alliance in World War. Do you just think Assault Vehicles are neat? We want you to have an avenue to succeed with them.

 

Here are our goals for the Combat Rebalance Initiative as a whole:

1. Ensure there is a wide array of viable strategies that can be used to win battles.

2. Ensure defensive play is just as viable as offensive play.

3. Ensure that every unit, tactic, and building has a distinct reason to be invested in and brought to battle.

 

So, without further ado, let's talk about the problem areas tackled in the first wave of Combat Rebalances.

Fighters are the first Airstrip Troop players unlock. Their presence on the battlefield is felt the instant a player unlocks them. In earlier ages, the Fighter performed its role as a Defender Destroyer quite well. It is a moderately strong unit, with the best Population to Hitpoint ratio in the entire Airstrip and, with a bit of library research, even provides suppression on Defensive Buildings it strikes. It isn’t until later ages in the game that Fighters become a problem. Its role as a Defender Destroyer loosens as it gains levels and players unlock a second Airstrip. The Fighter becomes nigh unbeatable at very high levels of play, and can easily destroy Buildings and Defenders alike, leaving little room for defensive players to actually interact with the attacking strategy, especially when the attacker concentrates all of their Fighters on destroying the building that is meant to counter it - the Air Defense. 

Defenders themselves also perform more desirably in earlier ages than later ages, but to a lesser degree. In later ages, they often clump together, resulting in one of two situations: either the entire defending Army gets destroyed immediately, or they form a completely impenetrable wall with no way to press forward as an attacker. There isn’t currently enough difference between the types of Defenders to force attackers to prioritize where they send their Defender Destroyers.

The following changes are being implemented to address these problems and better align the units with their intended roles.

1. Fighter

• Changed “DPS vs Defenders” bonus text to say “DPS vs Cavalry and Heavy Tanks”

• Fighters have always functioned this way in-game; we simply updated the text here to be more accurate.

• Marginally increased Movement Speed

• Slightly increased Turn Speed

• Reduced base damage by 50%

• Increased Damage vs Cavalry and Heavy Tanks by 100%

• This neutralizes the 50% base damage reduction when damaging Cavalry and Heavy Tanks

• Increased Damage vs Infantry by 100%

• This neutralizes the 50% base damage reduction when damaging Infantry

• Reduced Damage to Air Defense, Town Center, and Drone Command by 40%

2. Heavy Infantry Defender

• Dramatically increased Movement Speed

3. Ranged Infantry Defender

• Dramatically increased Movement Speed to match Heavy Infantry Defender

4. Bazooka Defender

• Marginally increased Movement Speed

5. Machinegun Defender

• Very slightly decreased Movement Speed to match Bazooka Defender

6. Heavy Tank Defender

• Slightly decreased Movement Speed

7. Garrison and Tank Depot

• All upgrades now require 4 Citizens instead of some requiring 6 Citizens

 

To highlight a few things, these changes accomplish:

• Allows the Fighter to flourish as the on-demand Defender Destroyer, evading more S.A.M. Batteries and G.C.I. Radars with tighter turns and reach their target and redeployment zone faster.

• Increases the viability of defensive strategies against Fighter-only army compositions.

• Allows defenders to spread out on the battlefield, resulting in a more complex defensive strategy.

• Increases the lethality of Heavy and Ranged Infantry Defenders, resulting in both more useful foot-troop defenders as well as more opportunities for attackers to exploit less-defended areas of the map.

You’ll also notice the Garrison and Tank Depot upgrades will no longer increase their Citizen requirement after a certain level. While not directly combat-related, we believe this change ungates defender-focused strategies and resolves a frustrating inconsistency in the game. Please note that this change only affects upgrades that start after downloading the latest update.

We will be carefully monitoring the results of these changes, and if need be, tweaking things in the future to ensure these units land in the right place. These are just the first steps to tackling our goals in making combat in DomiNations the best it can be, with more updates to come in future releases!

What would you like to see in future combat-based updates? We value your feedback. Thank you for reading, Leaders!

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Speed Up Auto Fill

We’re adding a new button for players to easily use their stores of Speed Ups. In Update 12.18, when speeding up an upgrade, you’ll now see the ‘Autofill Speed Ups’ option. Tapping this will use the Speed Ups you own to complete the Upgrade. The Speed Ups used will start with your highest (ex. 5d Speed Up) and use the minimum amount of Speed Ups possible to finish the upgrade or get as close to finishing it with the amount of Speed Ups available.

 

New Councilor - Charlemagne (Leader)

Charlemagne’s vision as the exclusive ruler of the Franks was to unite all Germanic people under Christianity. He pursued this goal by waging a three-decade long war against the Saxtons, eventually winning the conflict and putting in place extreme laws against all non-Christian people. At the same time as his conquest against the Saxtons, he conquered the kingdom of Lombards in northern Italy, as well as the Moors in northern Spain, instilling Christianity and supporting the Church anywhere he and his army went. Later, he would be crowned the Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire by Leo III, thus creating a new empire that would remain in power for over 800 years. While Charlemagne did not gain any additional authority from this title, it did formalize his rule over his conquered territory, and allowed him to lay the foundations for the newly established Holy Roman Empire.

Charlemagne’s legacy lives on in many forms, not the least of which is through his sword he wielded in battle. His Joyeuse Sword has been on display in the Louvre Museum, and has also been used in numerous coronation ceremonies of French Kings since his death in 814 AD. His arm has also been preserved in a reliquary upon his canonization long after his death in 1481, however the modern catholic church does not formally recognize Charlemagne as a saint.

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In DomiNations, his stats will increase the damage output of your Paratroopers and increase the HP of your Heavy Cavalry in both Primary and War Hall versions. You can start recruiting Charlemagne on 6/9!

 

Manufactory - Rush Materials

You’ll now be able to speed up your Manufactory Material production by spending Crowns. In the Manufactory Production screen, you’ll now see a button that will allow you to purchase 10 of a Material.

 

Additional Updates

• Multiple Localization updates

• Minor UI Graphical tweaks

• Changed Library Tech level based Troop names to generic Troop Names

• EX. Spearhead Machine Gun II DMG should now read as Machine Gun Infantry DMG

• Plans are underway to also do the same to University. We’re hoping to create consistency with descriptions throughout the game.

• Fixed a crash caused by upgrading the Alliance Gate with reduced citizen requirements researched.  

• Updated Tournament of Glory Enclyclopedia entry for better understanding with the Glory Decay System.