Ashes of the Singularity Escalation v2.65 has hit the battlefield

Stardock has released the v2.65 update for its massive RTS Ashes of the Singularity: Escalation. There are quite a few changes, including modifications to the campaigns and in-game menu, as well as rebalancing several of the maps.

While the changelog below has some interesting tidbits, the company recently teased more details on its upcoming DLC. There will be new scenario and multiplayer/skirmish maps, including a few that have been generally lacking from the options, such as symmetrical team-oriented 5v5/6v6/7v7.

If you are interested in the Scenarios, here's a brief description:

The Scenarios face the players up against unique situations and battles unlike any of the existing campaign and scenario missions. In the Ascension Scenario, for example, the player needs to build up and prepare for the Experimental Eye of Darkness which has insane damage and health and is sent out against the player after a delay. Here's a sneak peak of what that looks nice!

As for the update, here is the full changelog for v2.65:

New Scenario Splash Art: We have updated the thumbnails for most of the Scenarios so that each one now has their own unique image, instead of having a few shared among them.

New Benchmark Screen: We have improved the layout and appearance of the pre-benchmark screen.

Quality of Life

Regions can now be claimed from players who have disconnected from a multiplayer match

Damage status updates for Dreadnoughts, Juggernauts and the Nexus will always play immediately

Balance: In 2.5, we reduced the health of the Assembly to make it weaker than the PHC Counterparts to compensate for its versatility. Since it can no longer produce air units, we are restoring some of that health.

Increased Health of Assembly from 1200 to 1600

Orbital Nullifiers (Structures) will no longer block capturing of regions

Campaign Changes

Avatar and Sapper advanced defences now available in most missions

Juggernauts and Nexus Health upgrade now available on King of the Hill scenario

Imminent Crisis

Fixed some inconsistent grammar between the audio and text in Deneb

Medic is now available in Deneb

Falcon is now available from the beginning of Calethaon

Removed Dialog about Smarties in Calethaon as it felt abrupt and out of context. (Due to lacking another now obsolete line to preface it)

Delayed the arrival of the Overmind on Artorius when playing on lower difficulties, to varying degrees

Barrager is now available on Roceda & Silgul

Increased starting Quanta on Decanus to compensate for increased cost of Incursion

Escalation: The changes to Substrate air production in 2.6 created some issues in the Escalation campaign which we are now addressing. We are also removing some outdated dialog that now provides incorrect information.

Aviary is now buildable in Betelgeuse and Rosette with Pan, Dominator and Punisher unlocked

Removed obsolete dialog about Harvesters in Betelguese

Removed obsolete dialog about Saboteur in Rosette

Removed obsolete dialog from Lagoan revealing the Brute Mk2 and Hera

Removed confusing and misleading mention of Harvesters from Leo

Map Changes: We're fixing some map issues and changing a few maps that had too low a proportion of Radioactives, which limited strategic diversity.

Fixed unbuildable Radioactives Deposit on Lyra

Fixed unbuildable Metal Deposit on Aenghus

Added additional Radioactives Deposits on Shredded

Added additional Radioactives Deposits on Manannan

Added additional Radioactives Deposits on Anishanaa

Balanced all 6 spawns on Anishanaa

Fixed a disconnect between two regions in "Crack the Shell"

Adjusted Turinium requirements on several team game maps to reduce outliers that were set too high or too low

Bug Fixes

Fixed several tooltip errors

Fixed a bug where "Turtle Wars" Scenario had invulnerable turrets.

Fixed a bug where Medics were still running towards buildings, despite no longer being able to repair them

Fixed a bug where multiple Engineers were losing their build speed bonuses after the first structure

Fixed a bug where hotkeys weren't showing up on Quantum Upgrade icons

Fixed a bug where pending Logistics warnings were not showing up for peers in a multiplayer game.

Fixed a bug where the Pan didn't have an icon on the Empire Tree

Fixed an issue where holding down the mouse click when using attack move would instead box select

Fixed a bug where Juggernauts would do low damage after obtaining huge amounts of levels and upgrades

Improved the visual weapon alignment of the Sentinel, Carving, Falcon, Serpentine, Starburst and SkyEnder turrets.

Fixed a bug where Nano Mesh Barrier could be cast on dead units which would then lock out the ability

Legacy Changes

The following was implemented in 2.6 but was not documented in the changelog

Disruptor Tower can no longer target air units.