New Feature: 4v4 Auto-Balancer

- In classic queue, low-rated players on the lower-rated team now start with bonus income. The amount is based on the degree of unfairness of the teams, considering players’ ranked ratings and hidden classic ratings.
- 4-stack parties are no longer split up

We’re testing this mechanic as a way to:
1) Keep queue times fast
2) Keep games reasonably fair
3) Always allow 4-stacks to play on the same team

In the future, our goal is to implement skill-based matchmaking for classic queue.

New Feature: Postgame Reporting

- You can now report players for verbal abuse in the postgame screen by right-clicking their name
- These reports use the standard report ammo. 1 ammo restored every 8 games, up to 2 ammo held at a time
- As before, griefing (intentional losing) must be reported in-game via the TAB scoreboard, so that in-game information can be used to strengthen the report
- As before, leaving and afk’ing are automatically punished, so they don’t need to be reported
- Additionally, FairPlay is now smarter about detecting toxic players

Improvements & Fixes

Major Improvement: Performance Boost
- Overall performance boost, especially with many units on the screen. Rewrote client-side movement rendering

Minor Improvements
- Spectator Mode (beta feature for tournament hosts only): Added a game message whenever a spectator joins a game
- Classic Queue: No longer shows the number of players in queue. It was bugged and not easily fixable. Will consider implementing this in a future patch
- Mastermind Options (Greed, Lock-In, Redraw): Now shows a game message to teammates and spectators when picked
- Weekly Challenge: Clicking “View my best build” no longer plays a sound
- Maintenance Message (top menu bar): Now hidden unless you are viewing the main menu or login screen

Gameplay Fixes
- Added more debug information for the “wave units stuck in cave” bug. Please report logs in Discord (discord.gg/legiontd2) if you experience this bug in v7.02!
- Shift+Clicking a mercenary now has less risk of accidentally sending it after the wave spawned (reduced retry attempts from 5 to 4). Shift+clicking before income remains the same.
- Dark Mage: Now less likely to buff Berserker/Fatalizer on non-boss waves. Thank you to Widderson for the report
- Lost Chieftain: Fixed a bug introduced in v7.00 where it buffed the wrong target
- In 4v4, enemy wave now only start sprinting once all players are finished fighting, rather than just your team. Thank you to Cornep for the suggestion

Ping Wheel
- Replaced “maximize value” button with a thumbs-up button, which should be more useful

Game Balance

There hasn’t been enough time since v7.00 to make significant balance changes, so we’re only addressing outliers this patch.

Hero / Leviathan
- Percent damage bonuses now factor in existing damage bonuses, rather than only taking into account a unit’s “base” damage. This buffs Hero with Nekomata, Doppelganger, Fenix, and Kingpin. It also buffs Leviathan with Fenix

Pyro
- DPS: 48.7 >> 47.5
-- Damage: 19 >> 28
-- Attack speed: 2.56 >> 1.69

Pyro is slightly weaker on its own but now less hard-countered by Safety Mole. Pyro was changed a few patches ago to attack rapidly to thematically be a flamethrower, but it had balance concerns. We’re partially reverting that change and also giving Pyro new VFX.

Canopie
- Health: 4400 > 4500

Nightmare
- Health: 1080 >> 1060
- Attack speed: 1.79 >> 1.75

Millennium
- Health: 2270 >> 2170

Doomsday Machine
- Health: 5600 >> 5350