Alpha II

Alpha II
Released - September 18th, 2018

Update Size - N/A

New features and content
Quest Loop


 * The new game mode is about completing as many contracts as possible before escaping the planet.
 * Added Personal Quests to the game; quests that can be found during a match for bonus points.
 * Data Retrieval; find and recover valuable research data from human settlements.
 * Item Delivery; find a mysterious green artifact and deliver it to a drop off location.
 * Creature Tracking; find and follow tracks of creature and find its nest.
 * Central Station quest; when 5 Power-Up stations are active at the same time, the Central Station quest gets activated.
 * Warden Alpha quest; at some point in the match the Warden Alpha is spawned and an extra quest is activated. Does not appear in every match.

Emergency Triage / Down But Not Out (DBNO)


 * Players who are at 0 health are in Emergency Triage.
 * Players who are in Emergency Triage can be revived by pact mates.
 * Players in Emergency Triage have a shield that can lose health.
 * Upon losing all health on the shield, Players in Emergency Triage are stranded (a.k.a. out of a game).
 * Players who strand a player in Emergency Triage have a bounty placed on them (200 credits) and are visible on the map for the duration of the bounty (60 seconds).

Game tips


 * Added game tips to the matchmaking screen in the menu and to the lobby screen before a match.

Server Status Screen


 * This screen will be shown if The Cycle servers are unavailable (e.g. outside testing times, technical issues) to convey relevant information.

Enabled randomized character customization


 * Players character is randomized on Match Start.

General improvements
Settings menu – we added


 * proper settings tabs
 * key rebinding
 * support for resolutions up to 4k
 * resolution quality scaling setting
 * motion blur setting
 * FPS-capping setting
 * FOV setting
 * separate audio settings for: Master, Music, Sound effects and Dialogue
 * mouse invert settings; separate for x- and y-axis

Quest System iterations


 * Adjusted waves for Epic Minerals, so they stop once the mineral is done.
 * Three new Power Up stations; Landing pad, swamp camp & crashed ship.
 * Added more possible terminals locations to all Power Ups. Now every Power Up has 12 different possible locations for the terminals (was 6).
 * Increased possible locations from 3 to 7 for the Zeal Crystal to be spawned on the map.
 * Updated logic for finding a good drop location for the Zeal Crystal to prevent it being stuck inside of geometry
 * Added UI elements with quest information to Mineral and Power Up objects

Evacuation iteration


 * Changed the evacuation location to a single point in the center of the map.
 * Added authentication mechanic: Prospectors now have to be scanned before being authorized to enter the ship.
 * Prospectors located directly below the landing ship will be pushed aside or, if that fails, crushed (killed) by it.
 * Deployables (e.g. Turrets, Mines) are destroyed when ship lands on them, to avoid exploits.
 * Added notification for 3 minutes until ship arrives.

Loot


 * Major money loot pass all over the level. Created a few smaller human structures for new loot locations.

Gear Store


 * Improved logic to find a landing location for Gear Store purchases. Fixed issue with purchases ending up inside meshes.

Tutorial


 * Adjusted tutorial evacuation to use latest evacuation mechanics.
 * Disabled quest difficulty levels in the tutorial.

Other improvements


 * Reduced volume of the landing sequence.
 * Smoothed out landscapes.
 * Adjusted the help overlay to include Melee and the comm-wheel. Removed redundant entries.
 * Added the UI-top bar and the match timer to the spectator HUD.
 * Fixed floating cover objects all over the map.
 * Added blocking volumes to the center structure mountains to avoid player somehow getting up there, dominating the area.
 * Adjusted level cover based on BI Data from Alpha Test 1.
 * Fixed major collisions issues with the map.
 * Monster Nest interaction time increased from 2 to 5 to prevent exploitation.
 * Interaction set-back from taking damage while interacting increased.
 * Sprinting noise markers on the map are now only visible to players who don’t sprint themselves.
 * Uplink marker shows owner’s name in the map.
 * Weapon selection in HUD plays animation when equipped or upgraded.
 * Fixed several issues in Sandbox mode.
 * Removed Mid-Air Crouching.
 * Reloading does not interrupt Boxer Warsuit High Jump animation.
 * Holding the Aim button will resume aiming after interruption.
 * Strafing/backwards movement is slower than forward movement.
 * Weapon Damage towards Creatures and Players is tuned separately.
 * Reduced size of sights on the Hammer pistol, the Scarab pistol & on the K-28 Autopistol.
 * Fixed skinning issue on the K-28 Autopistol.
 * Fixed flickering on Advocate assault rifle.

Tuning / Balance Improvements
Weapons balancing


 * Reduced damage of starting pistols against other players – damage against AI stays the same.
 * Minor changes have been made to almost all weapons. Lower tier weapons are now slightly less powerful and mid-tier weapons are slightly more powerful.
 * Most Gear Store upgrades have been retuned.

Quest system tuning


 * Balanced monsters for Epic Minerals, reduced the amount of monsters per monster squad
 * Tuned down money drops for Mineral monsters and Super Power Up Monsters for both game modes. For minerals and super power up, list monsters now give 1/2 of the normal monster money drops and loop monsters 1/4 of it.
 * The first Uplink station is activated 30s after match start instead of immediately.

Kits


 * Boxer Warsuit
 * Added two levels that scale the damage of the Charge Attack.


 * Dragonfly
 * Added two levels that scale the damage of the Dive Attack.
 * Reduced Jetpack recharge rate.


 * Aani Quicksuit
 * Added two levels, one that increases weapon range and one that increases headshot damage.
 * Tuned Dodge and Slide to have slightly higher cooldowns.
 * Decreased speed of both, increased velocity at which Slide is stopped.
 * Decreased jump height.


 * Basic Prospector Kit
 * Added two levels, one that increases weapon damage and one that decreases ability cooldown times.

AI


 * Rebalance of Squatter AI into Feeble, Normal, and Warrior and Hunt Squatter AI into Aberrant, Mutated, and Evolved.
 * Global health reduction.
 * Increased movement speed of Drone type AIs and projectile speed of Spitter type AIs.
 * Removed health regeneration on Warden Alpha.

Abilities


 * Snare Trap DPS reduced, range increased, HP drastically reduced, now affects heavy jump and jetpack.
 * Kheper Revitalizer better handles activation and sprinting.
 * Reduced range of Directional Warp.

Bug Fixes
Multiple issues


 * with game stability.
 * with the collision in the game – none & invisible.
 * with in game audio and audio settings.
 * with becoming stuck after interactions.
 * where your shipments would be placed inside geo.
 * where auto-collected money meshes remain on the ground so you couldn’t pick the collect money.
 * where German text was not translated.
 * where the shard was dropping when a deployable takes damage.
 * with UI/Game focus.
 * related to foliage being too high.
 * Fixed an issue …
 * where sprint stops working after an interaction.
 * where The Gear Store doesn’t open in the Sandbox mode.
 * where running while using self heal plays the animation but the healing action doesn’t occur.
 * where the chat cursor moves to end of line after every input.
 * where chat focus is lost after every message you send.
 * where the last player to escape is stuck in reward screen and does not get into end of match screen.

Fixes


 * where creatures would disappear from spectator mode.
 * with distorted images for dropped gear.
 * regarding the VFX & radius/triggerability with the Jetpack.
 * with auto fire weapons not stopping sfx and vfx on empty clip.
 * with overlapping Voice Overs.
 * with Water looking glitchy.
 * relating to mouse sensitivity options being reset.
 * where icons in the scoreboard would get cutoff relating to the player name length.
 * related to various hunt locations not having monsters.
 * relating to interaction with Farmon.
 * relating to dying while in the shop and the game appears non-responsive.
 * where items has descriptions twice in the item select screen.
 * where players does not gain faction progression points.
 * where Cyrillic fonts not displaying correctly.
 * where there were grammar issues.
 * with the minimap in spectator mode.
 * where roads at several locations did not touch the ground.

Tutorial


 * where the evac ship bar is still displayed.
 * where cancelling the pact didn’t work.
 * where two evac markers are shown.
 * where the reward screen was not shown.
 * that the monsters would spawn to late and would be irrelevant.
 * where the player started without a weapon.
 * where your gear set is shown.

Misc


 * where the player can jump during the intro sequence, breaking the pod exit animation.
 * where if you escape first, but finish objectives second, the checkbox for escaping first is not checked.
 * where chat cannot be opened with the Enter key in winners screen.
 * with the readability of when the Dive attack is available or not from the Jetpack.
 * where pickups don’t disappear once you have picked them up.
 * where the starter battle rifle has the wrong upgrade.
 * with audio cues – you heard “Your ally has been killed” when you die.
 * where lobby music is not played from the second match on.
 * where the ‘crafted’ message always shows up when opening the factions screen.
 * where there is no escape ship marker.
 * where players can activate sprint while standing still.
 * where when your kinetic shield takes damage it interrupts your interaction bar.
 * where ‘complete all contracts’ was not checked even though there were all completed.
 * where there was no icon for active power up.
 * where it is not possible to change languages on the second attempt.
 * where the head hitbox can be completely separate from head on looking up/down.
 * where targets can walk away from the snare trap
 * where weapons would stop firing after a few shots.
 * where the weapon would be stuck in a shooting animation.
 * where the UI does not show the next facility.
 * which showed experience for progression above the limit.
 * where the map is visible for a brief moment before the lobby is displayed.
 * where your shadow is still visible when you are cloaked.
 * where there was a low-pass audio filter on for 3d sounds for the match duration.
 * where there was no Gear Icon for ‘Esc Menu’.
 * where the ‘Esc Menu’ missing from the Gear Store.
 * where opening the Esc menu while in the shop menu blocks the use of Esc.
 * where a pact was broken but the refiner still says owned by pactmate.
 * where the zeal crystal is blocking the view during the ninja slide.
 * where all map markers disappear when Evac shows up.
 * where cloaking doesn’t drop monster aggro.
 * with the nest icon remaining on the Minimap after nest has been taken.
 * where monsters at Evac spawn under the landing platform.
 * where icons on map don’t disappear after the player collects the related item
 * where the game would crash 100% when attempting to purchase above the ability or weapon upgrade threshold.
 * where the Mineral Marker on Minimap does not disappear after completion.
 * where the Power up console is placed inside a rock.
 * where the map was blurry until settings
 * where switched to High settings.
 * where market prices are always red even if players have enough money.
 * where the player could interact with power up station before activating all terminals (with no functionality).
 * where your pact mate is not shown on Minimap.
 * where crafting would not work.
 * where changing graphics settings and double-clicking the Apply button results in the UI going missing with inability to access ESC key menu or queue.
 * where refiners where not showing up on the map.
 * where minerals that were already mined
 * where showing up on the Minimap.
 * where all map icons where showing.
 * where the Evac ship gets stuck in midair.
 * where the Uplink was not able to be captured.
 * where weapon icons still show on drop pods after the item has been picked up.
 * where Farmon sound effects are too loud.
 * where Zeal crystal could not be picked up.
 * where a delivery was ordered, but didn’t show up.
 * where after a match the player is stuck in the server status screen.
 * where text on a non-interactable power up consoles reads “item already owned”.
 * where prices in the station
 * where not displayed.
 * where opening chat and clicking the world blocks all input.
 * where you could not shoot in the sandbox mode.
 * where you could not open the shop in sandbox mode.
 * where the Evac ship didn’t arrive in sandbox mode.
 * with VO’s not giving correct feedback in the tutorial.
 * where you could become blocked while looting at the same time as another player.
 * with the snare mine, that it could be used to prevent other players escaping.
 * when using the bug reporter that you can’t backspace more than a few times.
 * where the game believes a player has the Zeal crystal if the crystal was collected by another player at the same time.
 * where you can cancel matchmaking by accident when wanting to chat.
 * with white clouds during the storm.
 * where the options menu can’t be closed.
 * where when pressing both aim and shoot during reload caused aiming not to function.
 * where quests
 * where not active when they were.
 * where evacuation was not active but it was.
 * where end of match results got added every time you open the screen.
 * where a player was shown as alive but was dead.
 * where it was not possible to add the snare mine and the heavy turret to the gear set.
 * where the player was stuck moving in a given direction.
 * where the player got stuck when waiting on the evac landing pad and the evac ship landed.
 * where settings are not restored after a restart or a new match.
 * where the lock icon was missing if you cannot unlock an item.
 * where a player was able to slide while he was jumping (Ninja kit).
 * where the player position/ranking on the quest list is duplicated (German only).
 * where the master audio option doesn’t mute all sounds effects.
 * where you can’t shoot through friendly Kinectic Shields.