July Balance Patch is live + slow transport modoption!

Commanders! A fresh round of balance changes just went live. The headline this time is an anti-air shake-up, the weaker AA turrets get buffed into genuinely competitive options while T2 fighters take a step back, so lategame doesn't collapse into pure fighter spam. Alongside that: buffs for some underused T2 bruisers, nerfs to medium tanks and the Pounder to open up more unit variety on open maps, and a temporary stopgap for the Commander-in-a-transport cheese in competitive lobbies.

Anti-Air Rework

The core idea: make the less powerful AA turrets a real choice over the basic missile tower, mobile flak, and AA bots and pull T2 fighters, the ultimate AA unit in the game, back down a notch so other AA stays relevant (and lategame fighter swarms get a little smaller). The Nighthawk eats the bigger nerf, since it had been quietly outclassing the Highwind across the board. AA turrets (buffed):

• Flak turrets (Arbalest / Birdshot) - range 775 → 850, reload 0.5333 → 0.5s
• Chainsaw / Eradicator - range 1125 → 1200
• Ferret - range 840 → 950, DPS 176 → 208, Stealth added, metal cost 360 → 330, build time 5800 → 5000
• SAM - range 840 → 950, DPS 190 → 225, metal cost 315 → 350, energy cost 6100 → 5500, build time 5240 → 4500 T2 fighters (nerfed):
• Highwind - +7% cost
• Nighthawk - +7% cost, range 740 → 690

Medium Tanks & Raiders

Nerfed to promote unit variety in 1v1s and other open-map games, leaving room for other compositions and teching.

• Stout & Brute - +10% build time, reload 1.1667 → 1.2s, sight distance 330 → 350
• Rover - build time 1000 → 1100
• Pounder - health 1500 → 1400

Grunt

Vision increased to make it a better spotter, closer to the vision other T1 factories get from their basic scouts, with a tiny cost bump to compensate.

• Grunt - sight distance 500 → 520, metal cost 42 → 43

Underused T2 Bruisers

Both the Welder and Sumo are slow and short-ranged. They already have a niche, but units with big inherent limitations should also have big strengths in their own element — so they get cheaper, faster to build, and tankier.

• Welder - build time 9500 → 8000, health 2950 → 3500, speed 47.4 → 48
• Sumo - build time 15000 → 12000, health 5940 → 6500, speed 37.5 → 38, beam time 0.16 → 0.3, damage vs air 25 → 55

Gauss Consistency

Two niche Gauss-weapon units buffed to make them more competitive, and to make Armada's Gauss weapons a little more consistent overall.

• Gunslinger - health 1560 → 1800, speed 49.5 → 50, +24 AoE, weapon velocity 500 → 600
• Turtle - weapon velocity 450 → 600, impulse added

Seaplane Gunships

The fastest gunships in the game, nerfed their speed so there's more time to react to their hit-and-run attacks, but dropped their build time so they come out faster instead. The Monsoon's DPS is also bumped up to sit closer to the Puffin's power level.

• Puffin - build time 18000 → 14000, speed 271 → 210, special damage vs Commander removed
• Monsoon - build time 13000 → 11000, speed 266 → 200, reload 5 → 4s

Added modoption: Slow Commander Transport

There's a bit of cheese going around in competitive lobbies where a Commander loaded into a T2 transport is used as a cheap alternative to a bomber. As a stopgap while we work on a proper ground-up transport rework, there's a new "Slow Commander Transport" modoption (off by default): with it enabled, any T2 transport carrying a Commander is capped at speed 120, taking the air out of the drive-by D-Gun play. Aimed squarely at the competitive lobbies where this meta shows up, expect this to be replaced entirely once the transport rework lands. Full changes on GitHub (PR #8393).