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Blueprints and Upgrades
July 22, 2026 at 03:08 AM
Created page documenting the blueprint modification system and the upgrade layers around it
Dust Front RTS layers several kinds of improvement on top of each other. Doctrine research unlocks what you can field, macro buildings raise the whole army at once during a battle, and blueprints modify how individual units behave. This page covers the blueprint layer and how the pieces fit together. For the research trees themselves, see Technology and Doctrines.
The developer has explained the reasoning directly. Upgrades that visibly change a model are satisfying, but they are expensive to make, so most strategy games fall back on upgrades that only move numbers. He did not consider that wrong, only uninteresting, and wanted something better than telling a player their unit is simply better now. Blueprints are his answer: universal modifications that change unit parameters and can be combined.
Blueprints are installed from the global map rather than mid-battle. A modification may improve a unit's parameters slightly, or improve them substantially while reducing something else, so a blueprint is a trade rather than a straight gain. Some units carry multiple slots and can run more than one blueprint at a time.
The developer's worked example is a shell type. Shells with a gas payload leave a gas field where they land but give up direct damage in exchange. Those shells can be fitted to a Dreadnought or to Hammer Artillery, but they cannot be given to infantry riflemen, so the system is bounded by what each unit is.
Property | What has been stated |
|---|---|
Where they are installed | From the global map, between battles |
Effect range | From a small parameter change up to a large gain paid for with a loss elsewhere |
Slots | Some units have several and can combine blueprints |
Restrictions | A blueprint suits some units and not others; gas shells fit heavy guns, not riflemen |
Interface | Still in development at the time it was described |
It is explicitly not a unit constructor. The developer has said he wanted to keep the intended designs intact rather than let players rebuild units from parts.
Blueprints are unlocked through more than one route, which ties them into both layers of the game.
Through doctrines, as part of the technology tree covered under Technology and Doctrines
As rewards found in missions
In special sectors on The Global Map
Through the regional events that fire as the campaign runs
One question the developer has left open is whether a blueprint applies to the whole army at once or only to newly produced units. He has said he leans toward applying it only to new units, but framed it as a matter of how heavy the management burden becomes rather than a settled rule.
Blueprints are one of three improvement systems, and they are easy to confuse with the other two.
Layer | Applied where | What it changes |
|---|---|---|
Doctrine research | Global map, between battles | Unlocks new units, buildings, and higher-tier technology |
Blueprints and equipment | Global map, per unit type | Modifies unit parameters, with slots and trade-offs |
Macro buildings | Inside a battle | Raises every unit of the relevant kind on the battlefield at once |
Local upgrades, described in the demo's interface as equipment, are handled separately for each unit rather than across the army. The more significant doctrines and equipment are also the ones that carry visual changes to the model, which the developer kept for the upgrades that matter most rather than spending that work across the whole tree.
Each faction has its own macro buildings. They unlock technology and improve every unit on the battlefield, working in the spirit of progressive armour and damage upgrades from older strategy games but folded into the structures themselves so there are fewer separate buttons to press. The faction you play in the demo has three of them, described under Base Building and Resources.
Because these upgrades sit inside buildings, improving your army and expanding your base become the same activity, which is the developer's stated reason for combining them.
