We’ve been ambushed, General!
Superweapons have been a highly requested and anticipated feature for Tempest Rising since long before launch, though we’d rank something else even higher…
Prepare to engage Veti hostiles!
Veti Multiplayer Test: Dec. 2-15
Starting NOW until December 15, owners of Tempest Rising can jump into a new public test branch and experience playing with the complete roster of the Veti Faction in Skirmish, Custom Games, and Quickplay matchmaking (Ranked is disabled in this test branch).
How To Access the Test
If you own Tempest Rising, you will now have access to a Veti Multiplayer Test ‘Branch’.
After the latest update has been successfully installed, you can find and access the test by going to Properties > Betas > Beta Participation and then selecting the veti_mp_test branch from the dropdown menu.
Test Veti Content
9 Buildings
7 Vehicles
6 Infantry Units
5 Air Units
5 Defensive Structures
5 Specialists
1 Superweapon
Veti fundamentals
The Veti’s alien nature makes them a very different faction compared to the GDF and Dynasty. They have three core mechanics that distinguish them from human forces.
Subjugation and Sacrifice
By subjugating enemy infantry, the Veti claim dominance over the battlefield. On death, weakened enemies will gain new life as the Enlightened, a thrall of the Veti, which will serve their new masters with the power of holy Sacrifice. By their sacrifice, the Veti forces will become consecrated, unlocking new powers.
Awakening and Expansion
The Veti have their own unique system for upgrading structures and expanding across the battlefield. Enter: The Caretaker.
A supporting flying unit with a diverse toolset; two of its main abilities are creating Build Radius beneath itself at will and the ability to construct Ascension Anchors. By consuming your Enlightened (converted enemy infantry), the Ascension Anchor allows you to further upgrade and buff nearby linked structures.
As the Veti Commander, you’ll often be faced with a dilemma: Sacrifice your Enlightened in the heat of combat for impactful buffs, or have them retreat to your base to upgrade your Ascension Anchors? The choice is yours.
Tempest Symbiosis
Unlike the GDF or Dynasty Factions, the Veti do not brutally uproot the Tempest bud and leave a dead field in their wake. Their Refinement Altars cultivate the field, harvesting credits while never consuming any of the Tempest completely.
Veti Superweapon - Sanctifier Portal
When subjugation is insufficient, when the enemy’s corruption is too deep to be merely repurposed, the Veti enact their terminal doctrine: total purification.
The instrument of this final judgment is the Sanctifier Portal. It is not a weapon of conquest, but of erasure—a declaration that the ground upon which the unworthy stand is so tainted it must be scoured back to its base elements.
Weapon Ability: Deploy Sanctifier
The Sanctifier Portal’s primary function is to deploy the ‘Sanctifier’ – an unstable avatar of pure energy that immolates all ground-based life and matter around it before consuming itself.
The Sanctifier deals passive AoE damage in a radius beneath it, and has the perk ‘Subjugation Aura’ – applying the Subjugation effect to enemy Infantry within range, rendering them unable to gain positive status effects. Any Infantry units that die while under this effect will turn into Enlightened.
Unit Ability: Consume
The Sanctifier unit has an additional ability – ‘Consume’. When activated, the Sanctifier consumes ground units (friendly or enemy) in the target area, killing them instantly.
The Sanctifier then gains 30% of the consumed units’ health by transmuting their base material into the raw energy needed to mend its own unravelling form.
Share Your Feedback
This Faction has been a long time coming, and we’re thrilled to finally get them in your hands! Please continue to share your thoughts and feedback, as you have since launch, on the Tempest Rising Subreddit, Steam Forums, and in our Official Discord Server.
Your feedback has directly made Tempest Rising a better game, and we’re very eager to hear your opinions about how the Veti Faction feels to play in Multiplayer.
Now, let’s dive into all the other new content and improvements coming to the main game in today’s Superior Firepower Update.
New Features
Superweapons
Introducing the GDF Drone Strike Station and the Dynasty Excavator Platform.
Available at the end of that faction’s tech tree, these Superweapons exist as late-game utility as well as base and army-breakers. Doing more damage than anything else in the game, Superweapons will change players’ approach to the late game and represent the pinnacle of each faction’s combat philosophy.
For a deeper dive into both the GDF and Dynasty Superweapons, check out our recent breakdown post:
Drone Strike Station
Once built, the GDF player gains a significantly enhanced vision radius, providing them with unparalleled map awareness around the Drone Strike Station’s location.
When fired, the Drone Strike Station drops 9 Drone Pod Turrets onto the battlefield. Each Drone Pod Turret lands with a tremendous impact, dealing initial strike damage. Then, the turrets unpack, persisting on the map for a minute, silencing attack targets. Each Drone Pod Turret is also host to several respawning Combat Drones.
Excavator Platform
The Excavator Platform enables players to send Drone Strike Teams on a short cooldown anywhere they have vision for deep-strike attacks all around the map.
When fired, the Excavator Platform creates an earthquake, sending multiple pulses of damage to enemy ground targets. Then, it can deploy additional units at the epicentre of the explosion, allowing for continued assault on anything left alive.
Skirmish & Custom Match Settings
We’ve also added a new setting for Skirmish and Custom Matches, allowing players to change between the default Max 1 Superweapon per player (Enabled), disabling them from being built, or allowing players to build unlimited Superweapons in a match.
Global Production Queue
The Global Production Queue allows players to see all active production in one window - without having to spend precious time digging through the build menu to uncover what’s being produced.
Players are now able to see all queued units and structures in a single interface, and cancel, pause, or duplicate items out of the queue as desired.
If you find your economy stalling, you can also clear the entire queue with the X button at the bottom of the global production queue. Could be handy in a pinch!
For Dynasty players, the global production queue also replaces and enhances their existing “placement grid” functionality for building placement, which is bound to “N” by default.
Codex
The Codex is an in-game encyclopedia that features a full overview of the GDF and Dynasty Factions, including information on all units, structures, Support Powers, passives, status effects, and more.
This feature gives you an opportunity to read up on Tempest Rising mechanics outside of the stress of a combat situation. It provides easy access to a wealth of information that, until now, has been primarily available through tooltips and unit descriptions.
To give an example: sub-pages for individual units give you a structured overview of the units' stats – including weapons, resistances, perks, abilities, and veterancy bonuses.
Additionally, you will be able to toggle between “Campaign” and “Multiplayer” to see the unique balance changes between the two game modes.
Logitech RGB Device Support
All factions will now support Logitech RGB lightning:
Each Faction will now have a unique color when starting up any game mode (Campaign, Multiplayer or Skirmish)
The spacebar key will now flash when units are under attack
All keys on the keyboard will flash when a Superweapon is ready or fired
All keys can dim or turn off depending on your Power status in-game
When a Dynasty structure is ready to deploy, the ‘deploy’ hotkey will start flashing
Note: Logitech RGB will not work if "Windows Dynamic Light" is enabled on Windows 11 systems.
Doctrine Research Visual Improvements
We have implemented several quality-of-life updates to the visuals on the Doctrines research tab in Skirmish and Multiplayer matches, aiming to improve overall clarity and intuitiveness of the Doctrine system.
Swapped colors for ‘available’ and ‘researched’ Doctrines
Improved visibility/contrast of the research timer on Doctrines
Added small icons to Doctrines to indicate their current status
Balance Updates
We continue to monitor under-performing units and strategies, and are increasing the variety of options available to all players.
General
Global Defense Force (GDF)
For GDF, we are still focusing on utility and expanding tactical diversity. We aim to expand their aggression options in the early stages of the game, making units like Skycranes and Quellers more viable harassment options once again.
In the later stages of the game, we are tuning some of their go-to units and strategies down slightly while improving less-used units, such as the Condor and Hijacker.
We are looking for ways for other players to interact with and disrupt the GDF Intel economy, particularly later in the game. To this end, we are introducing the Intel Storage Perk to select units, which removes some stored Intel from the GDF player if units with this perk die.
GDF Building Sites
Making GDF building sites auto-attacked by enemy units allows the GDF player to utilize building sites more effectively to distract enemy armies; while this is potentially costly, it provides GDF players with more tactical options to leverage their existing systems.
Field Scout
Field Scouts are currently underperforming compared to other T1 Infantry units in the very early game, but we aim to make them a more skill-based unit. We are focused on improving their Marking Mine ability rather than increasing raw stats.
Engineer Guard Tower
We aim to provide the GDF with more options in the early stages of gameplay. This Health increase should help Guard Towers be better obstacles and shot blockers for GDF forces to use against incoming enemy units.
Harvester
We are tweaking the Harvester slightly to increase its impact on Comms, thereby enhancing the depth of GDF harvesting. This should result in better outcomes when harvesting near Comms sources.
Harvest Speed decreased to 100/sec (from 110/sec)
Acceleration increased to 425 (from 410)
Movement Speed increased to 525 (from 500)
Comms Rig
Comms Rigs are a versatile unit and are relatively critical to GDF armies. With this new Intel Storage Perk, protecting them from the enemy becomes more important, and we hope this makes the decision to use them somewhat more interesting. This also frees up some Comms Rig “power budget” for future changes.
Queller
Bringing the Queller up to its original Campaign lethality will make it much more effective at picking off vulnerable enemy vehicles, as well as a better harvester harassment tool.
Satellite Uplink
Already a valuable target due to it being a dense source of tech unlocks for the GDF, Satellite Uplinks can now be killed to remove some Intel from GDF players
Laser Turret
We aim to make turtling strategies more challenging to set up effectively for GDF players. However, with many air-based sources of damage improving, we are making the Laser Turret specifically more powerful to help protect GDF bases and harvesters from air harassment.
Peacekeeper
Peacekeepers have proven to be somewhat too effective against DYN Dragonflies due to a bug which inverted their Networked and base AA missile damage. This has been corrected. However, their overall win rates are below where they should be, so we are improving their anti-ground Riot weapon slightly to compensate.
Anti-air Damage decreased to 100 (from 130)
Networked Anti-Air Damage decreased to 140 (from 160)
Riot Weapon Range increased to 1900 (from 1800)
Fixed an issue which inverted basic and Networked damage
Data Core
As with other Intel Storage changes, this will help limit GDF players’ ability to rely on late-game Intel scaling if they are being harassed.
Hijacker
Hijackers are getting increased range and damage to make them more effective and easier to use. Their Hijack ability cost is being decreased so that it can be used more consistently.
Attack Range increased to 3300 (from 2500)
Damage per shot increased to 180 (from 120)
Hijack ability cost decreased to 30 Intel (from 40)
Condor
Condor usage rates have remained low, so we are making some improvements. In addition to increasing its damage, we are adjusting its acceleration and turret rotation speed to reduce instances of not firing on time. Making Stealth cost less Intel should make it a more attractive option.
Ammo increased to 3 (from 2)
Acceleration increased to 1600 (from 1500)
Turret rotation increased
Stealth Cost decreased to 10 Intel (from 20)
DCU
The DCU has been a terror of the GDF late game for some time now, and we feel that it needed a bit of a rethink in order to properly place it as a late-game utility unit rather than a massable versatile combat powerhouse.
We are removing Marking from its weapon. Instead, it gains the ability to summon 2 Spy Drones at the cost of some Intel. This allows for the Marking of enemy units, but the Marking can be limited or removed with proper anti-aircraft weaponry.
The DCU is trading power for flexibility: With new Spy Drones, it can help scout the map. It will also need to be better-protected, now that it also has Intel Storage Perk.
New Perk: Intel Storage: When killed, the DCU will remove 15 stored Intel from the player who owns it. Intel cannot be reduced below 0.
New Ability: Summon Spy Drones - 10 Intel, 80-second cooldown. Can be summoned up to 2800 range from DCU.
Marking removed from the weapon.
Attack Range increased to 3800 (from 3100).
Comms Radius decreased to 2500 (from 3000)
Health decreased to 680 (from 770)
Drone Respawn Time decreased to 15 seconds (from 19)
Drone Mauler
We are increasing the Drone Mauler’s performance relative to its Intel cost. Also, we are experimenting with giving Brigand Drones Marking to help it find a more interesting niche in the GDF lineup.
Trebuchet
Trebuchets are a late-tier GDF staple and have been helping enable GDF camping. Some slight tweaks should retain their power, but tone down their ability to stall out games
Cost increased to 2500 (from 2400)
Build time increased to 35 seconds (from 33)
Attack Area-of-Effect size decreased to 600 (from 700)
Tempest Artillery Turret
Like the Trebuchet, Tempest Artillery turrets are used for hard-to-block turtling strategies that we want to make a bit harder to set up.
Cost increased to 2600 Credits (from 2400)
Build time increased to 40 seconds (from 35)
Attack Area-of-Effect size decreased to 600 (from 700)
Haywire Turret
These turrets are still underutilized, and we hope that this cost decrease encourages more players to try them out.
Communications Jammer
Due to how quickly Communications Jammer hits, we are tweaking its duration slightly to make it feel fairer in high-level play.
Tempest Dynasty (DYN)
The Dynasty have mostly remained strong in the early and midgame, falling off in the later game as GDF players unlock more ways to shut down their abilities and strategies, decreasing potential income for Dynasty players.
We are implementing two key changes to buff the Dynasty. First, we are revising the Salvage Aura, causing allied units within the effect to generate Credits based on the damage they deal to vehicles, aircraft, and buildings.
Secondly, we are exempting Tempest Dynamos from being silenced, forcing other factions to find other ways to deal with units under the effects of this ability.
Tempest Dynamos
Tempest Dynamos is a core faction system available to various Dynasty units; however, GDF players regularly have options to suppress its effect. With this change, Dynamos can no longer be silenced, which we hope encourages more players to utilize units that enable this ability, as well as supporting systems like Field Infirmary and Salvage Vans.
Ignitor
Ignitors have fairly low usage rates (aside from being spawned when Pillagers die). This improvement benefits both the Ignitor and the Pillager, as we continue to improve outcomes for shorter-ranged units.
Dynasty Guard
After several rounds of improvements, players and data indicate that the Guard is now overperforming. We are reverting our last change to address this.
Flame Turret
Similar to how Tempest Artillery Turrets are too effective at letting GDF turtle in the late game, Flame Turrets have remained a solid counter to many potential rush strategies. These changes are designed to make Dynasty players have to work harder to defend in the early game.
Health decreased to 880 (from 950)
Attack Range decreased to 3000 (from 3200)
Attack Speed decreased to 1.5-second intervals (from 1.3)
Tempest Rig Harvester Wheel
This is a very minor change designed to chip away at the Dynasty’s economic dominance in the early and mid-game, slightly reducing their income rate.
Matchstick
Matchsticks have a very high win rate and are incredibly lethal. These changes give opponents more time to react and save their Infantry and Structures from being destroyed.
Porcupine
Porcupines are a powerful unit but are intentionally difficult to use effectively. These changes are designed to make mistakes while using Porcupines less punishing overall, making it easier to keep them alive for multiple volleys.
SAM Site
SAM Sites are powerful turrets; however, we believe players struggle to fully utilize them due to their fragility.
Health increased to 950 (from 870)
Attack Speed increased to 2.8-second intervals (from 3.3 seconds)
Attack Area-of-Effect size increased to 260 (from 200)
Salvage Center
The Salvage Center is already a valuable part of the Dynasty’s lineup, but we are looking to improve several issues Dynasty players have been experiencing, bundling them together in this structure.
Tempest Charge attacks will help increase the value of Voltaic Reaction. The ability to attack Aerial units makes it a better counter to the newly buffed GDF Condor and Queller. A rework on Salvage Aura will help improve economic sustainability.
Attack now generates Tempest Charge
Attack can now target Aerial units
Redesigned Salvage Aura for Skirmish and Multiplayer. It now provides Allies with a buff that returns 25% of their damage dealt against vehicles, air units, or buildings as Credits. Salvage Aura can be Silenced
Assault Gunner
Assault Gunner success rates have remained lower than expected, due to many other Tier 3 units being able to kill them very effectively. Along with the change to Tempest Dynamos, we’re giving them a little health bump.
Voltaic Tank
Voltaic Tanks have been one of the easiest ways to win a ground fight when massed. These changes are designed to make them more easily countered by conventional attacks and less likely to wipe out ground armies when simply attack-moving.
Commando
A Commando is, effectively, a walking Support Power; with these changes, we’re aiming to make the investment in this unit more worthwhile.
Radar Station
We are aiming to make high-level tech a slightly quicker and more cost-effective investment for Dynasty players.
Bug Fixes
General Gameplay
Fixed an issue where the limit of simultaneously constructed buildings for the GDF faction was applied to Dynasty Construction yards
Fixed an issue where a Rally Point couldn’t be placed on a Neutral building if it was not captured by the player
Fixed an issue where a Rally Point placed on a building in the Fog of War would be reset if the building was captured
Fixed an issue where Specialists and Commando-type units wouldn’t appear after being produced if the player exceeded the Population cap of regular units
Fixed an issue where the Matchstick’s animation would end abruptly when it stopped moving
Fixed an issue where units would stop moving towards a Garrison-type building if it was fully occupied
Fixed an issue where it was impossible to deploy “Spy Drones” and “Riot Drop” Support Powers on ramps and Tempest Fields
Fixed an issue where deployable abilities could be spawned inside each other if used close to environment objects or buildings
Connection/Reconnection
Fixed an issue where Neutral structures sometimes were not displayed at the start of the match in Ranked/Quickplay if the player had an unstable connection
Fixed an issue where units would move with a delay after the connection was restored from packet loss
Fixed an issue where the match would end after any player/bot was destroyed in a custom game that included bots
Fixed an issue where the actual reconnection time took longer than allowed in Ranked/Quickplay matches, resulting in the inability to reconnect to the match
Fixed an issue where a bot would not replace a player (AI takeover reconnection behavior) if they disconnected during the map loading phase
Fixed an issue where players wouldn’t connect to a 6-player match correctly if they were unable to connect to the match within 30 seconds
Fixed an issue where chat history was deleted for a reconnected player
Multiplayer Maps
Fixed an issue where units sometimes would not choose the shortest path to some bunkers on the Bridges Out map
Fixed an issue where the player couldn’t use the “Unload” ability of several units on repaired bridges on the Emergence Map
Fixed an issue where uncaptured Neutral buildings would have a blue color on the mini-map on some maps
Campaign
Fixed an issue where units could fall under the terrain in a specific location in GDF Mission 1
Fixed an issue where some units could get stuck near the Tempest Rig in GDF Mission 2
Fixed an issue where units loaded in the Riot Vans during the opening cutscene were counted as ‘Killed’ afterwards on the Score screen in GDF Mission 2
Fixed an issue where players had the ability to dismantle the captured Con Yard in GDF Mission 3
Fixed an issue where one “Trebuchet” would leave the map after loading the first autosave in GDF Mission 5
Fixed an issue where mines wouldn’t be visible if placed on bridges in GDF Campaign Mission 5
Fixed an issue where Quellers received as reinforcements weren’t controllable immediately in GDF Campaign Mission 6
Fixed an issue where units located inside vehicles or spawned from Manpower Doctrine were not destroyed after the final explosion in Dynasty Campaign Mission 8
UI
Fixed an issue where the Voltaic Tank had “Harvester” unit type in the Armor tab
Fixed an issue where a bot would be displayed in a Custom match without bots in the list of players for Spectators
Fixed an issue where the nametag of a selected unit could be displayed in Campaign cutscenes
Fixed an issue where the Private Chat tab could disappear after receiving a message while in a Lobby
Fixed an issue where clicking on a bot icon while on the score screen would open the player’s profile
Fixed an issue where opening any player profile while in a Lobby would close the current Lobby
Fixed an issue where a player’s color turned white if they left the match early
Fixed an issue where the camera button of a defeated/surrendered player would be displayed for Spectators
Fixed an issue where tooltips for “Game Speed” and “Active Pause” buttons would not appear
Fixed an issue where aircraft called from Support Powers wouldn’t be displayed on the minimap
Fixed an issue where the next mission objective wouldn’t be displayed if a player hid the previous objective before completing it in Campaign
Fixed an issue where “Highest Difficulty Cleared” would always display the difficulty selected upon campaign profile creation, instead of the actual highest difficulty cleared
Fixed an issue where buffs weren’t calculated correctly in the armor tab if the buff applied was additive
Fixed an issue where the invite sender didn’t receive a pop-up message if their invitation had been accepted/declined
Fixed an issue where players might see their own Steam Avatar for all other players in the Lobby preview
Visuals
Fixed an issue where the Machinist’s attack with the Tempest Arc weapon had a doubled visual effect while in the Garrison
Fixed an issue where air units' damage visual effects could be displayed on the ground instead of the actual target
Crashes
Our Discord server is the best place to share feedback and chat directly with our team and the rest of the Tempest Rising Community!
