Halo Wars 2 June patch brings UI changes, balance tweaks, and much more

Halo Wars 2
Halo Wars 2 (Image credit: Windows Central)

A fairly hefty patch is set to hit Halo Wars 2 today, bringing a ton of little fixes and tweaks. While there's not individual huge change, the lengthy patch notes detail quite a few UI changes, balance tweaks and more.

Here's a look at all of what's new and changed in the June 28 patch for Halo Wars 2, from Halo Waypoint:

UI/Navigation

  • Improved selection box to allow for easier selection of units when on the fringe of the unit
  • Selected unit sub-selection now more responsive when using Right Trigger and Y button to cycle through the selection
  • Fog of war made more readable
  • Now lines up more closely with logical sight ranges
  • The visual transition when units emerge from the fog of war is much quicker
  • Improvements to camera scroll speed and feel when playing with a controller – regular scroll is noticeably more responsive, and fast scroll (holding LB) gives a much larger speed boost
  • Changing the Scroll Speed settings in options also has a much greater effect than before, resulting in more control over how scroll speed to feels
  • Speed can be reduced to previous levels by adjusting the Scroll Speed setting in the Options menu
  • Hid player gamertag and rank in the map load screen

AI

  • AI is no longer able to place rally flags in places players are not allowed to place
  • AI no longer knows when the player is beginning to target them with a leader power before they use it
  • Units won't be aggroed by Suicide Grunts and won't automatically move towards them to engage (they will stand their ground instead)
  • Buildings/Units:
  • Supply Pad upgrade time reduced from 25 to 18s Shield Generator stacking reduced per generator from 50% efficiency to 20%
  • Special abilities (Hijack, Slam, Phoenix Missile, Brute Warlord's Hammer Shockwave, etc.) now gain the benefit from generic damage upgrades
  • Fixed an issue where the Hunter Captain would not be able to attack if its taunt ability was interrupted
  • Hunter Captain no longer receives as much healing from Combat Repair
  • Hunter Captain health lowered
  • Adjusted Locust's behavior when targeting units in the fog of war
  • Upgrade 3 for Vehicle, Air, and Infantry apply the correct amount of health to appropriate units
  • Skitterer health from Vehicle Upgrade lowered at all levels
  • Skitterer can no longer become useless if the unit it is going to pair with dies before pairing is complete
  • Kodiaks should no longer fail to target an enemy on the other side of a cliff or hill if they have line of sight
  • Cutter's Jerome Hero unit will no longer get stuck in a vehicle if upgraded while in a vehicle
  • Spartans no longer become unresponsive when slamming a teleport pad
  • Spartans no longer damage the unit they're hijacking Honor guard will now have more success when attempting to slay a fleeing unit
  • Units grouped with engineers should now be able to use their Y ability when the group is selected
  • Snipers can now be commanded to attack units in garrisons without being grouped with other units who could
  • Units will now auto attack garrisoned units as they walk past
  • Scorpions now have better accuracy when attacking garrisoned units
  • Scorpion can no longer fire two canister shots Chopper can no longer trigger ram animation when selecting an air unit
  • Condors will no longer waste their Y ability when targeting air units
  • Decimus can now use Y ability on buildings Hornets no longer fail to do damage after firing at a target for a prolonged time
  • Blisterbacks shouldn't be deployed under the surface of the map anymore
  • Veteran Blisterbacks can once again be healed to full
  • Johnson's heal beacon size and effect now correctly match
  • Johnson can no longer move to cancel his animation and fire additional smart missiles
  • Skitterers now correctly apply full damage from focus beam upgrade
  • Colony's Living Barrier benefits from base Fortify upgrades
  • Shipmaster's Grunt squad leaders are now rightfully Sangheili instead of Jiralhanae, and now can be upgraded to cloak instead of having Shrapnel Mines
  • Normalized damage of hijacked vehicles regardless of who made the vehicle
  • Kinsano's Cyclops Hero unit selection circle should now be more visible when not hovering over it
  • Decimus and Warlord will no longer try to pull units that are already close to them
  • Warlord no longer resets his attack animation when selecting a unit to attack
  • ODST charges will now explode when placed on top of or next to buildings in side plots
  • ODSTs can no longer throw more than 1 charge at a time
  • ODSTs can't attempt to throw their demo charge at air units

Leader Power:

  • Atriox Fortifications slightly reduced in effectiveness at level 1, and greatly reduced at level 2, and is specifically less beneficial to shield generators
  • Cost reduction on bases, stronghold upgrade, turrets and shield generators changed reduced to 15% per level.
  • Fortifications-altered cost of Fortify upgrades rounded to nearest 5.
  • Upgrade speed buff on stronghold upgrade and turret upgrades reduced to 15% per level.
  • Vehicle Symbiotes power can now target turrets
  • Buffed Vehicle Symbiotes to now apply correct armor and health
  • Scorch Mines can no longer blow each other up on deployment
  • Shipmaster's Displacement can now affect Protector Sentinels
  • Restoration Drones can now target turrets
  • Scatter Bomb now more correctly aligns with its targeting reticle
  • Vortex Lightning now damages and debuffs units in garrisons
  • Garrisoned units no longer heal faster from leader powers than ungarrisoned units
  • Mech Overcharge and Combat Salvage can now be invoked regardless of whether the reticle is in the fog of war or not
  • Mass Cloaking now removes units from the minimap in Blitz mode
  • Reavers will no longer continue to shoot when hit with EMP Mac Blast while stunned
  • Vehicles stolen by Ghost in the Machine are no longer visible in the Fog of War
  • Ghost in the Machine can no longer permanently increase Isabel's population cap by using it on units that are teleported
  • EMP Mac Blast now more correctly matches the targeting reticle

Engine:

  • Graphical settings now defaults to 'Low' when using an integrated GPU
  • Fixed an issue with AMD Radeon R9 390 GPU that could cause some graphical corruption in campaign
  • Fixed an issue where the "Graphics Driver out of Date!" message could refer to an incorrect driver version in some cases
  • Idling in the main menu for extended time should no longer permanently disconnect the player from services for that session
  • Players should no longer be able to remove the command point cap earned in a mission by loading a save
  • Loading a save and finishing a previously completed mission should no longer add the complete mission time to time played
  • Fixed a desync that could happen in 3v3 Strongholds
  • Fixed a crash that could occur when loading saved games
  • Multi-GPU support is now enabled on Windows 10
  • Up to two GPUs are supported
  • This implementation of Multi GPU synchronizes data between the two GPUs. Running at 4K resolution and higher-quality graphics options may exceed the bandwidth available to synchronize the cards, which may cause in-game performance issues.
  • Updating to the Creators Update of Windows 10 is strongly recommended
  • Make sure you're on the latest graphics driver

Art:

  • Fixed graphical corruption that could appear near wraiths in campaign
  • Nightingale's smoke screen no longer disappears when camera moves view off of it and back
  • Colossus' legs face the right way when targeting enemies now
  • Vulture's yellow warning light is now attached to the craft when firing its missile
  • Mantis chaingun effects have been cleaned up
  • Decimus' Siphon no longer leaves green effects on the units

Audio:

  • Added some audio to the Cyclops death animation
  • All leaders were missing the voice over callout when the player's base was destroyed
  • Fixed Chopper's ramming audio loop
  • Corrected explosion of Lotus Mines to play the appropriate sound effect
  • Anders sentinels will no longer play Grunt audio upon death
  • Johnson's EMP should no longer cause audio to stutter

Last, but not Least:

  • Players affected by earlier issues with loss of progress will have their progress restored, based on their halowaypoint.com Service Record
Dan Thorp-Lancaster

Dan Thorp-Lancaster is the former Editor-in-Chief of Windows Central. He began working with Windows Central, Android Central, and iMore as a news writer in 2014 and is obsessed with tech of all sorts. You can follow Dan on Twitter @DthorpL and Instagram @heyitsdtl