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Changelog

What's new in LandUp

Major updates, new features, balance changes, and bug fixes — listed from newest to oldest.

  1. v0.14.0Start Menu Preview, HUD Rework & Reach

    • New

      Live map preview in start menu

      A live mini-map renders directly above the Start Game button using the same noise formula as the engine. Resolution scales with map size (150 chunky, 300 medium, 450 fine) so you instantly see what the seed and water slider produce.

    • New

      Difficulty-colored preview frame

      The preview now wears a colored ring matching the chosen difficulty: green for Easy, white for Normal, red for Hard, purple for Brutal — with a matching glow and a small difficulty label in the corner.

    • New

      Strategic bot markers on the preview

      Bot count is visualized as dots placed via farthest-point sampling on land cells: never in water, never stacked, always spread out. A note clarifies that bots ultimately pick their own starting area when the round begins.

    • Improved

      Prominent Reroll Map button

      Replaced the small dice icon with a rounded, gradient Reroll Map button under the preview — much easier to spot and tap on mobile.

    • New

      Big 15-second start countdown

      A large translucent 15 → 1 countdown now pops in the center of the screen at the start of every round, with a 'Select start position now' hint underneath.

    • Improved

      Full-map view at round start

      The camera now opens fully zoomed out so the entire map is visible during spawn selection — no more panning around to scout before the timer runs out.

    • Improved

      Top HUD focused on player vitals

      Reworked the top bar for both mobile and desktop. Bot strength dots moved out of the header and now sit under the minimap, leaving room for cells, units, money, missiles and nukes.

    • Improved

      Troops slider removed mid-game

      Troop deployment % is now set once in the start menu and shown read-only during the match. The footer is slimmer and clutter-free.

    • New

      Game portal embed page

      New /embed route serves a clean, chrome-free version of the game suitable for submission to portals like CrazyGames.

    • Fixed

      Reliable visit & game-session tracking

      Page views and game starts now record through server functions instead of client-side inserts, bypassing RLS race conditions that were silently dropping analytics events.

  2. v0.13.0Strategic Depth Patch

    • Balance

      Slower expansion, real frontlines

      Player expansion cap reduced from 6 → 4 cells/tick (bots 3 → 2). Enemy capture is 15 % more expensive. Map-flooding is out, contested borders are in.

    • Balance

      Roads = infrastructure, not exploit

      Base road income hard-nerfed to a flat $0.08/s with no length scaling. Roads now earn a real bonus only when they link productive buildings (factory/house/harbor) into the capitol network. Long chains incur a slight efficiency penalty.

    • Balance

      Tighter building soft-caps

      Houses: strong up to 6, weak up to 10, marginal beyond. Factories: strong up to 5, weak up to 9, marginal beyond. Stacking is no longer a strategy.

    • Balance

      Stronger anti-snowball + comeback

      Territory factor kicks in earlier (300/700 cells) and bites harder (1.0 → 0.85 → 0.65). Underdog comeback now scales: <60 % leader = 1.30×, <35 % leader = 1.45×. Plus +0.2/+0.4 global defense bonus and 40 % cheaper bunker repairs when far behind.

    • Balance

      Nukes — earlier, riskier

      Nuclear strike money cost 1200 → 1050 (~12 % cheaper). Plutonium plants slowed (1.6 → 1.25 mat/s). Missile production slowed (18 s → 24 s base). Nukes become a real mid-game threat instead of an end-game button.

    • Balance

      Terrain matters more

      Capture multipliers raised across all difficult terrain. Defensive bonuses on forest/mountain/snow/swamp/volcanic increased. Mountain mining $0.04 → $0.06, desert solar $0.03 → $0.05, geothermal $0.06 → $0.09. Position now beats raw mass.

    • New

      Bot archetypes

      Each bot is now randomly assigned a personality: Aggressor (early military), Defender (bunkers + shields), Economic (factories + harbor), Tech (rushes nuclear), or Balanced. Build priorities and attack frequency shift accordingly — every match plays differently.

  3. v0.12.0Major Balancing Patch

    • Balance

      Soft-cap economy

      Houses and factories now use tiered scaling (full → half → quarter strength) instead of unlimited stacking. Eight factories no longer print money.

    • Balance

      Road income reworked

      Connections now pay $0.15–$0.60/s based on network length. Long, meaningful routes are rewarded; spamming 2-cell roads between adjacent buildings is no longer dominant.

    • Balance

      Harbors rebalanced

      Harbor cost 400→700, build 18s→25s, dispatch every 35s. Trade reward scales with route distance ($25–$60). Strong, no longer broken.

    • Balance

      Snowball prevention & comeback

      Empires past 400/800 cells take soft income/growth penalties (×0.9 / ×0.75). Factions far behind the leader (<60% of largest) gain a +25% comeback bonus.

    • Balance

      Strikes more meaningful

      Conventional missile $350→$400, nuclear strike $800→$1200. Radius, fallout and craters unchanged — late-game decisions matter more.

    • Balance

      Tweaks

      House $70→$90 (10s build), factory $140→$120, troop growth 0.014→0.016, capitol-connectivity & terrain rules unchanged.

  4. v0.11.0Bot AI Overhaul

    • New

      Difficulty profiles wired in

      Easy, Normal, Hard and Brutal now actually change bot behaviour: build cadence, expansion speed, aggression, tech curve and player-targeting bias all scale per tier.

    • New

      Bots use every building

      Opponents now construct harbors on coastal sand for trade-ship income, build fire stations near forest clusters and active fires, and erect bunkers only on contested frontiers.

    • New

      Connectivity-aware planning

      Bots detect when their buildings are inactive and prioritise roads — or bridges across water — to reconnect them to their Capitol network.

    • New

      Bunker self-repair

      Damaged bot bunkers are repaired automatically when reserves allow, keeping defensive lines from collapsing after a single strike.

    • Improved

      Smarter strikes & focus fire

      Missile and nuke targeting now weighs Capitols, nuke chains, shields and silos higher, accounts for enemy bunker coverage, and on Hard/Brutal coordinates focus-fire across multiple bots.

    • Improved

      Reactive defense

      Bots remember who attacked them and bias counter-attacks toward the aggressor for the next 30 seconds.

    • Improved

      Terrain-aware placement

      Houses prefer fertile forest/land, factories avoid swamp, bunkers and silos favour mountains, harbors require coastal sand, and hazardous tiles (fallout, lava, fire) are skipped.

    • Balance

      Pirates layer on top of difficulty

      Pirate factions inherit the active difficulty profile and stack additional aggression, attack-priority and harbor focus on top.

  5. v0.10.0Capitols & Player Feedback

    • New

      Capitol building

      Each faction now starts with an indestructible 3×3 Capitol at its spawn — visible at any zoom and protected from capture.

    • New

      In-game feedback

      New Feedback button next to the in-match log lets players submit bugs, ideas, and suggestions, stored securely in the backend.

    • New

      Administrator console

      Added a private /administrator page for reviewing, filtering, and triaging player feedback (admin role required).

  6. v0.9.0Player Guide & Patch Notes

    • New

      Changelog page

      Added an in-game Changelog accessible from the main menu, listing every major update grouped by release date.

    • New

      Instructions page

      Comprehensive 12-section player guide covering basics, terrain, economy, buildings, defense, missiles, the nuclear chain, and world events. Reachable from the main menu.

  7. v0.8.0Harbors & Maritime Trade

    • New

      Harbor radial menu

      Clicking an owned harbor now opens an interactive menu showing active trade ships, income per trip, and the auto-dispatch countdown.

    • New

      Manual trade ship dispatch

      Pay $25 to instantly send a trade ship from any owned harbor. Manual dispatches reset the auto-timer to prevent ship clustering.

    • Improved

      Live harbor telemetry

      Engine API now exposes per-harbor stats (ownership, ship count, next dispatch) for richer UI feedback.

  8. v0.7.0Elevation & Craters

    • New

      Heightmap terrain

      Maps now generate with real elevation data. Higher ground influences combat, line-of-sight, and visual shading.

    • New

      Impact craters

      Missiles and nuclear strikes deform terrain on impact, leaving permanent craters that can flood when adjacent to water.

    • Balance

      Gameplay-aware terrain

      Terrain elevation affects unit movement and building placement, adding strategic depth to map control.

  9. v0.6.0Defense Systems

    • New

      Bunkers

      Build hardened defensive structures that absorb attacks and protect surrounding territory.

    • New

      Fire department

      Deploy fire stations that automatically extinguish fires from missile impacts and prevent spread.

  10. v0.5.0Strategic Weaponry

    • New

      Missile silos

      Construct silos to launch conventional missiles at distant targets across the map.

    • New

      Nuclear chain

      Multi-stage nuclear program: research, enrichment, warhead assembly, and silo launch — with devastating radius.

  11. v0.4.0World Events & Atmosphere

    • New

      Random world events

      Earthquakes, storms, and other dynamic events keep every match unpredictable.

    • Improved

      Kingdom name generator

      Procedurally generated kingdom names with thousands of variations for richer flavor.

  12. v0.3.0Economy & Roads

    • New

      Building economy

      Houses, factories, and markets each contribute different income streams to your kingdom.

    • New

      Road & bridge connections

      Roads connect buildings and boost income. Bridges enable land routes across water tiles.

  13. v0.2.0Cloud Saves & Auth

    • New

      Account system

      Sign up with email or Google to unlock cloud saves across devices.

    • New

      Save slots

      1 free cloud save slot, with 2 additional slots available for Pro accounts.

  14. v0.1.0Initial Release

    • New

      Core gameplay loop

      Procedurally generated maps, faction expansion, bot opponents, and configurable difficulty.

    • New

      Map customization

      Adjustable map size, water/land ratio, bot count, troop deployment percentage, and seed control.

More updates coming soon. Suggestions? Let us know in-game.