Welcome to Escalation! We have made many new improvements to the game, including more units, new worlds, deeper gameplay, better graphics, and new campaigns. Please make sure read below for the change notes.
Campaign
Two new campaigns that further chronicle the story of Ashes of the Singularity
- Memories- See the events of Imminent Crisis from Haalee’s perspective and understand why she gave birth to the Substrate.
- Escalation- The PHC struggles to to fight the Substrate threat while internal rebellions threaten to break them apart.
Gameplay
- Wage wars with more than a dozen players at once.
- New Global View: zoom out and the map changes to a new strategic map that displays holographic display of the entire battlefield. This will allow you better control large groups of armies across the map.
- Substrate use a new economic system that keeps them from wasting resources. They have unlimited storage, so they can gather infinite amounts of Metal and Radioactives for when they need them.
- Formation AI has been improved to make it easier to control larger armies.
- New Orbital Abilities
- Orbital Jam (Substrate/ PHC) Protects a large radius area from orbital abilities for a short period of time.
- Nano-Mesh Armor (Substrate/ PHC) Provides an armor bonus to targeted units.
- Emergency Turret (PHC) Call down a temporary turret to defend a region.
- Rush Build (PHC) Doubles rate of production to give you a burst of resources.
- Serpentine Turret (Substrate) This construct can be placed anywhere you have vision, allowing you to deploy it behind enemy lines or to set a trap for incoming forces.
- Sapper (PHC) The Sapper can be inserted anywhere you have vision. It builds small turrets that can harass or entrap enemy forces.
- Saboteur (Substrate) The Saboteur can be inserted anywhere you have vision. It specializes in destroy buildings -- use it to target their defenses or cripple their economy.
- Nano-Transport (Substrate) - Reinforcements are teleported on completion to the target's location.
New Worlds
- Crystal Worlds Explore alien worlds covered in massive crystals.
- Lava Worlds Fight battles over volcanic pits on these burning worlds.
- Huge map size: Even larger maps to conquer.
- Multi-tier terrain: Get the high ground advantage with more levels available keeping you from being able to get to your enemy, or places to bombard your enemy from.
Graphics
- The game interface has been completely re-skinned to make it both more usable and aesthetically pleasing.
- More dynamic environments with cloud cover, environmental fx (such as ground fog), and environmental sounds.
- Improved game performance.
Buildings
- Buildings can be upgraded into more powerful forms. For example, Smarties can be upgraded into the new Barrager building.
- New PHC Advanced Sky Factory and Substrate Aviary that build advanced aircraft.
- New turrets that allow you to better hold territory, harass enemy lines, and strengthen your defenses:
- Barrager (PHC) This upgrade from the Smarty Launcher has armor penetrating rockets that are effective against both air and ground units.
- Artillery Post (PHC) An alternate upgrade from the Smarty Launcher, this turret is a long range gun with AOE round useful for shelling groups of enemies from afar.
- Constable (PHC) A cheap anti-air gun useful for a rapid deployment to quickly build up your defensive line or respond to a sneak attack. Can be upgraded to the Falcon Anti-Air turret.
- Air Eliminator (PHC) An upgrade to the Constable, the Eliminator takes out enemy aircraft with a single shot. Great against Strategic Bombers and Harbingers.
- Oblivion (PHC) This upgrade to the Sentinel Post fires a single depleted uranium round whose kinetic energy absolutely devastate to single targets.
- Starburst(Substrate) One of the two possible upgrades to the Blossom Launcher, this flak cannon that sends out a pulse of energy above it to damage groups of enemy aircraft.
- Sky Ender(Substrate) The alternate upgrade to the Blossom launcher, this expensive anti-air defense cannon is the ultimate sky defense and is great at taking down squadrons of enemy aircraft.
- Shredder (Substrate) An upgrade to the Drone MRV, this flak cannon that sends out a pulse of energy above it to damage groups of enemy aircraft.
- Disruptor Cannon(Substrate) This nasty cannon will absolutely melt incoming swarms of frigates.
- Heavy Annihilator(Substrate) This upgrade to the Annihilator shoots endless streams of superheated plasma that does even more damage to both air and ground units.
- Pulverizer(Substrate) This nasty creature fires a steady, long beam that does massive damage to everything in its path.
- Exterminator (Substrate) This expensive weapon is an upgrade from the Pulverizer and is great for attacking both air and ground units.ann
- Serpentine (Substrate) This construct can be placed anywhere you have vision, allowing you to deploy it behind enemy lines or to set a trap for incoming forces.
Units
New units to add new variety and gameplay dynamics.
- Hera (PHC): A giant tank sporting heavy armor and a really powerful gun. Useful for holding a defensive line against waves of enemies.
- Instigator (PHC) A fast unit that can harass and punish enemies that have spread out too quickly.
- Marauder (PHC) A large hovering gunship used to destroy enemy cruisers.
- Strategic Bomber (PHC): Send this bomber in to destroy your enemy's buildings with a single large explosion.
- Caregiver (Substrate) This unit boosts multiplies an army's strength by recharging its defenses.
- Harbinger (Substrate) A flying unit specially designed to blow up your enemy's buildings.
- Harvester (Substrate) A small unit that increases the amount of resources gathered, boosting your economy.
- Masochist (Substrate) The Masochist increases your army defenses by detecting and destroying incoming projectiles by using its shields to protect others.
- Rampager (Substrate) An evil looking thing that is great for destroying large numbers of small units.
- Mobile Nullifier (Substrate/PHC) This large unit blocks all nearby enemy orbitals.
- Charon (PHC) A large unit that teleports army reinforcements to it's location.