Rivals pre-alpha patch 19 July 2018

The 19 July 2018 patch for Command & Conquer: Rivals was the game's sixth official patch, which affected the game's balance but not the build number.

Announcement
On 18 July 2018, game designer Greg Black announced the focus points of the patch.

Global Changes
Reveal duration for units attack from the fog of war has increased to 5 seconds (was 1 second)

M.L.R.S

 * Health decreased to 1500 (was 2200)

Basilisk

 * High damage increased to 175 (was 150)

Catalyst Missile

 * Impact delay increased to 3.5 seconds (was 3.0)

Artillery

 * Damage reduced to 1250 (was 1500)
 * Damage vs Infantry reduced to 120 (was 200)
 * Attack duration increased to 5 seconds (was 4)
 * Health reduced to 1500 (was 1800)
 * Speed reduced to 3.9 (was 5.5)

Banshee

 * Attack duration decreased to 1.6 seconds (was 2.0)
 * Turn rate increased to 300 (was 150)

Venom

 * Damage vs Infantry increased to 60 (was 50)

Map Changes
We are making some balance changes to maps.

All maps have been tuned for symmetric consistency of unit spawn points and automated harvester tiberium choices.

We have made more significant changes to ten maps (listed below). The feedback and data around these maps revealed some patterns that we wanted to correct.

From a game balance perspective we want maps to encourage certain army builds and strategies, but we want those builds and strategies to be different from map-to-map within a group of maps. No play style should be dominant on all maps to avoid optimal builds.

The main issue we were seeing from this perspective was uneven distribution of maps that enabled harvester kill strategies. There was too much aggression in the Badlands map groups and not enough in the Alpine map groups. We've taken steps to correct that imbalance so that each group now has a more even mix of maps in regards to harvester harassment.

The other issue we found was battle time, some maps (ahem, Center rally) were taking significantly longer to win or lose then others. These maps were too defensibly stable in their layouts, allowing players to stake out territory and making it hard for players to attack each other. We have taken steps to make these maps more volatile which should lead to shorter battles.

We are keeping a close eye on how commander powers and long range units (MLRS, Artillery) are being used on each map, but aren't making any specific changes with this update.

These are the changes that were made to individual maps:

Fertile Basin

 * The 2nd Tiberium field was moved away from the lower capture points to make it easier for players to attack two on one into ' their ' capture point.

Stonewall

 * This map had a bug, we've temporarily removed it.

Center Rally

 * This map was taking too long and often getting to a state where all the tiberium was mined out. To encourage faster battle times we've moved the two capture points next to each other to allow for capture point to capture point fights and the ability to attack the harvesters in the top group of tiberium fields.

Middle Oasis

 * This map put too much focus on the top capture point and caused too many harvester kills. To encourage more even engagement across the map we've removed some of the rocks to open a second path to the bottom capture points and moved tiberium fields to create more balance between the points.  While this map is still dangerous for harvesters they shouldn't be in as much danger as before.

Fighting Pit

 * The arrangement of tiberium on this map was causing harvesters to go on long dangerous journeys across the capture points. The new arrangement reduces that behavior.

Broken Mesa

 * Tiberium has been rearranged for harvester safety and to make better use of the entire map. Some movement blockers have been removed from the middle of the map to make it easier to attack when you don't have control of it.

Side by Side

 * Tiberium has been rearranged for harvester safety. Attacking both capture points has been made easier to reduce battle times for the map.

Down the Middle

 * This map has been redesigned for faster battles with more harvester aggression.

Open Water

 * Tiberium fields have been moved on this map to make attacking harvesters easier.

Frozen Road

 * Tiberium fields were moved to improve harvester pathing.