Weekly Playtest 9

Weekly Playtest 9
Released - June 6th, 2019

Update Size - N/A

Changes
Using your abilities when in DBNO

One of the big Community-requested changes we made this week was to enable players to still have the possibility to be “useful” and active when knocked out into DBNO. We have several ideas on how to tackle that, and we would like to test them with you and hear your feedback on how you like each one of them. This Friday, you will be able to use your 2 purchased abilities (default buttons: Q and E) when in DBNO. Additionally, healing abilities from friendly players (including you own abilities) will work on downed players. Enjoy the “DBNO Madness”!

Weapon purchase prices

We also got your feedback about the 125, 500 and 900 split being sub-optimal for several reasons. Thus, we will experiment with a new, more rounded setup on weapon prices. It will be 200, 500 and 800. This means that yo will have to put a bit more consideration into your “Starter” weapon, but will have an easier time getting to the Tier III stuff if you so choose. Also, the difference between weapons is now evenly distributed to 300 credits.

Gear Store Prices


 * All 125 credit weapons now cost 200 credits
 * All 500 credit weapons remain 500.
 * All 900 credit weapons now cost 800 credits
 * Gorgon is now a 200 credit weapon (used to be 500)
 * ICA Guarantee is now a 800 credit weapon (used to be 500)

Dev Comments: The weapon tiers have been a bit too far away from each other, making a couple of 125 Credit weapons feel too optimal all throughout the game, while the 900 ones were so expensive that few even bothered getting them. We hope that these following changes will make the performance spectrum feel more in line, as well as make people get their hands on more (fictitious) guns!

Balance


 * Weapons
 * Asp Flechette Gun
 * Damage from 26 to 28
 * Refire time from 0.08 to 0.095
 * Clip size from 35 to 28
 * KOR-47
 * Damage from 36 to 35
 * Clip size from 30 to 28
 * Lacerator
 * Damage from 75 to 70
 * Clip size from 14 to 12
 * "Heavy Slicer" damage bonus reduced from 165% to 143% and refire time increased from 0.25s to 0.5s
 * "1.5x Scope" does not reduce the weak spot multiplier anymore
 * Advocate
 * Damage from 32 to 34
 * Refire time from 0.09s to 0.12s
 * Falloff start range from 5000 to 4500
 * Falloff end range from 8000 to 7500

Dev Comments: The Advocate was under-performing and due to its short refire time it was difficult to make it hit hard without making it too strong. We therefor made its fire-rate more in line with other Assault Rifles and made it less effective at long ranges. It should now stand as an ideal close quarters AR in comparison to the Phasic Lancer and Manticore.


 * Gorgon
 * Damage from 33 to 34
 * Refire time after burst from 0.1s to 0.25s
 * Burst count from 10 to 6
 * Clip size from 50 to 36
 * Spin-up time from 0.5s to 0.42s
 * Mods have been adjusted to compensate for the new gear store tier

Dev Comments: The Gorgon was like the Advocate not performing very well, and we felt there was a need for at least one more AR in the lower price tier. The Gorgon has undergone some behavior changes to make it less troublesome to use, while still retaining its own “personality” and fall into the same performance level as its new brothers and sisters in the new 200 Credit tier. Many of its mods has had some larger changes in order to maintain this new vision.


 * ICA Guarantee
 * Damage from 40 to 45
 * Clip size from 75 to 125
 * Falloff start range from 4250 to 4000
 * Falloff end range from 6500 to 6000
 * Maximum falloff damage from 75% of base damage to 50%
 * Adjusted recoil to be stronger but less jittery
 * Now has slightly less recoil compensation

Dev Comments: The Guarantee is supposed to be strong, and we want it to feel strong. However having it alongside many ARs (which have the same effective damage and range spectrums) made it difficult to make it feel as powerful as it should be. Therefor we tried putting it into the new 800 Credit tier. It is not as effective at long range, but will melt most things up close. Just like Rambo always meant for it to be.

Fixes


 * Mods
 * Fixed some weapon mods that caused issues with ammo being displayed in Menus
 * Fixed a Manticore mod that gave the weapon negative ammo values in the game
 * "1.5x Scope" does not reduce the weak spot multiplier anymore
 * Matchmaking
 * Fixed various issues with not being able to matchmake and inconsistencies in squad matchmaking

Visual feedback improvements


 * Hit flashes on hit for hostile objects have been iterated
 * We now show different colours based on it being hit with a critical shot vs normal hit. Intention is to highlight the critical hit more then normal ones.

Miscellaneous


 * If your shield is depleted and you take damage, the shield recharge rate will be reset again.
 * Improved Drop Location Placement for Zeal and Hunt items.
 * Changed all 4x scopes and higher to use scoped sensitivity.
 * Increased base sensitivity for scoped weapons.
 * Rendering crashes at the end of the match or at the start of the tutorial should now be fixed
 * Updated blood splash VFX on enemies