Design Diary: Elite Spartan & AC-19 Ares

May.22.2020 BY WC:RA

DESIGN DIARY DOUBLE FEATURE

AC-19 ARES & ELITE SPARTAN

Buckle up, we’ve got a special one for you this time with TWO new upcoming units. Take a look!

ELITE SPARTAN

FRESH FROM THE FIREBIRD

Hello Commanders, 

First off, let me introduce myself. I’m the newest designer on Rogue Assault, freshly recruited and eager to earn my stripes. In my first few months, I’ve been inspired by the breadth of strategies I’ve seen employed, so I wanted to upgrade a unit that would fit well in the mix, while also making you reconsider certain tactics. 

I was thrilled that I was able to work on an APU as my first unit – especially one that reminded me of the alien killers in Edge of Tomorrow and hard hitting Zion defenders in The Matrix. While I didn’t arm the Spartan with a helicopter blade sword like in the movie, their new secondary weapon would have no problem shooting killer robots or invading aliens out of the sky.

The Elite Spartan improves on the Spartan’s best attributes. The Countermeasure suite has been bolstered – strong enough to defend others in your platoon. It also gained a huge health boost. A stronger Spartan means more power to those who favour their deployment with the Valkyrie and the Kodiak. Try adding a squad of Elite Spartans to support more fragile units – it can take a beating while returning fire with a vengeance.

Now spawning three times faster in defense waves, with a microSAM that evades most countermeasures, we intend the Elite Spartan to become foundational to defense. Airstrike the Barracks quickly or risk having your fixed wings ripped apart! The powerful surface-to-air missile tech can also be swapped out for versatile rocket pods. You’ll need to make a tough decision for weaponry tech, but rest assured: the newly improved Countermeasures, health, DPS boost, and hugely reduced deployment time make the Elite Spartan a must have unit on offense and defense. 

We are going to continue to deliver units that offer interesting and difficult loadout choices, starting with the new tier 9 battle tank. I can’t say too much about it yet, other than it’s a true beast that can be set to take on a variety of threats with ease. Until then, good luck on the battlefield, Commander. Firebird, over and out!

AC-19 ARES

FROM THE DESK OF THE DOGMAN

The circling aircraft has always been one of our most popular types of units. The Ares seeks to fill this role for Tier 9 units, as it’s taken a while to come out with a new one. The AC-19 Ares however will be the first unit of its kind.

It will be released in three phases, 5 levels at a time, achieving elite status once it’s maxed out at level 15. This unit won’t be available in the monthly event like standard units either – we’ll be posting additional details to introduce this new activity. We have a new way of achieving this kind of unit, which we are calling “Mega Units Revised”. These units will be large, powerful units, which have more utility and are available for defense.

The first stage of the Ares will be the simplest version of its equipment. Each single level will unlock another piece of equipment and this will remain the same over every phase. Each phase will have power and usefulness that should change the unit’s purpose completely.

The first phase is catered towards sustained assault capabilities, and powerful defensive use. We’re hoping to make a distinct tool for our players to use both offensively and defensively that can counter FOB units as well as make it even harder to take down well constructed bases.

Stay tuned for the next phase which will be released 1 month later. We will release more information about the purpose then.

That wraps up this edition of the Design Diary series! Stay tuned for the next chapter in June.