Release 5 - Season One

= RELEASE #5 =

= SEASON 1 – THE LOST PROSPECTOR =

Hello Prospectors! It is finally time to launch Season 1 – The Lost Prospector!

We hope that you are as excited as we are about the first season of The Cycle. The Lost Prospector brings you the Fortuna Pass, 2 new Archetypes, new skins, new options for customization and much, much more! Let us dive into the new content and changes coming in Season 1!

FORTUNA PASS, CHALLENGES & NEW ARCHETYPES

 * The Fortuna Pass is a new way of earning customization rewards in the game. The Season 1 – The Lost Prospector – Fortuna Pass will bring all new Archetypes, Costumes, Banners, Melee Weapons, Emotes, Death Poses, Weapon Skins and Coatings to The Cycle!
 * To gain levels in the Fortuna Pass we have implemented Challenges!
 * Challenges are either seasonal, weekly or daily. You will gain XP when completing them and gaining enough XP unlocks new Levels in your Fortuna Pass. “Let’s dance, big guy” for example gives you the task to kill a whole bunch of Wardens. So what are you waiting for? Gear up and complete your challenges, Prospector!
 * The 2 new Archetypes are the Thrill-Seeker and the Veteran.

GAMEPLAY CHANGES

 * We increased the passive Contract Point gain from carrying the Red Zeal Crystal.
 * We increased the Victory Points rewarded for completing the Central-Station Powerup contract.
 * Based on internal and community feedback, we have made some additions to the Tutorial – have a look and tell us what you think!
 * Laser Drill tutorialization: The contract is explained to players once they encounter them during a match. Once you encounter a Laser Drill in the game, the radio message will tell you more about this contract and how to complete it!
 * Uplink tutorialization: The contract is explained to players once they encounter them during a match. Once you encounter an Uplink in the game, radio message will tell you more about this contract and how to complete it!


 * Damage Slowdown
 * No longer scales in intensity as you take continuous damage.
 * The amount of slowdown added is now more consistent, could vary greatly before.
 * The amount of slowdown added is now slightly modified by the strength of the last hit.
 * Now properly calculates hits near the immunity threshold, meaning you won’t get early immunity from some medium damage sources.
 * Slowdown duration increased from 0.5 to 0.75
 * Slowdown immunity duration increased from 2 s to 5 s
 * Max slowdown was decreased from 55% to 45%

''Dev Comment: The slowdown system has been a hotly debated topic internally for quite some time. We wanted to reduce the frustration from getting hit repeatedly by stronger weapons, especially while performing movement abilities with the Kits. Hopefully it should feel way more consistent and fair in this patch. In general the idea is that it will help the shooter with landing a couple of consecutive hits, while it should not enable them to freeze a target in place.''

QUALITY OF LIFE CHANGES

 * The coating icons were iterated on to better represent what colors/patterns they contain.

GUN AUDIO IMPROVEMENTS (COMMUNITY FEEDBACK)
As before, we are continuing to make weapon sounds and SFX more impactful to enhance the game feel and overall experience.

We updated the firing sounds for the following weapons:


 * Kinetic Arbiter
 * Scrapper
 * KOR 47
 * Maelstrom
 * Voltaic Brute

LEVEL DESIGN

 * We made some additional changes to the map.
 * Based on the Community feedback, and the bug reports, we are slowly going through the map, and fixing navigational issues.
 * We added new monorails to the map that connect to the Central Station, to provide a better visual guidance to the EVAC.

VISUAL EFFECTS UPGRADES & MISC

 * HUD
 * All direction indicators are now 3D, showing where you should look rather than where you should walk.
 * When the indicators were in 2D it would often lead to situations where the indicators would be misleading.
 * The damage indicators now only display when the attacker is outside of your field of view.
 * The damage indicators are now consistent in size, no matter the amount of damage dealt to you.


 * We implemented new heads for the Foreman Archetype.
 * We polished the Foreman Archetype head to match the quality of our other Archetypes.

WEAPON BALANCING
Dev Comment: We’ve read many comments on the current balance, specifically regarding snipers and the long range combat, and we will adress this in the future.

''This patch we’ve addressed some of the least used 500 Credit weapons, giving them general usability and damage output improvements. We also wanted to address The Scarab as its been the most used Starter by far, especially due to its rapid fire mod and its effectiveness at longer ranges. It should now be less viable in being a standin for a 200 Credit weapon. The KOMRAD should now be more consistent in landing hits overall, and its AoE damage less effected by where'' you hit a target.


 * K28 Autopistol
 * Damage falloff start changed from 2000 to 2500
 * Damage falloff end changed from 6000 to 6500
 * Scarab
 * Damage reduced from 40 to 35 per shot
 * Increased the horizontal recoil
 * Decreased the speed of recoil compensation
 * Decreased the vertical recoil compensation
 * Base spread increased from 6.5 to 8 (Max spread remains the same at 11)
 * Spread increase from moving and jumping was reduced from +75% to +25%
 * Damage falloff start changed from 2500 to 2000
 * Damage falloff end changed from 6500 to 5500
 * Mods
 * “Chain Reaction”
 * Doesn’t reduce damage anymore
 * New: Increases reload time by 50%
 * “Light Weight Battery”
 * Clip size penalty reduced from -4 to -3
 * “High Efficiency Battery”
 * Clip size bonus changed from 5 to 3
 * “Phasic Chamber”
 * Damage bonus reduced from +55% to +35%
 * Clip size penalty changed from -5 to -4
 * “Phase Repeater”
 * Refire time bonus reduced from -64% to -55%
 * Damage penalty increased from -15% to -20%
 * Spread size reduced from +30% to +15%
 * Does not reduce recoil anymore
 * New: Recoil compensation delay +50%
 * “High Frequency Chamber”
 * Burst interval bonus reduced from -25% to -20%
 * Refire time bonus reduced from -25% to -15%
 * Doesn’t reduce damage per shot anymore
 * New: ADS recoil intensity +25%
 * “Focal Chamber”
 * Spread size reduced from -50% to -40%
 * Spread increase rate changed from -50% to -25%
 * Doesn’t reduce recoil increase rate anymore
 * Fixed an issue with effective range being decreased rather than increased
 * Maelstrom
 * Refire time reduced from 0.575 s to 0.475 s
 * Reload time reduced from 3 s to 2.75 s
 * Damage reduced from 27 to 23 per pellet
 * Slightly reduced vertical recoil
 * ADS recoil intensity reduced from -45% to -25%
 * Spread now doesn’t build up with continuous shots
 * No more spread increase while jumping
 * ADS spread multiplier reduced from -50% to -25%
 * Mods
 * “Heavy Drum Battery”
 * Clip size bonus reduced from +4 to +2
 * “Fractal Crystal”
 * Pellet amount bonus changed from +50% to +25%
 * Damage penalty per pellet changed from -25% to -10%
 * Spread size reduced from +50% to +30%
 * Refire time penalty increased from +15% to +20%
 * “Focus Crystal”
 * Old:
 * Effective range increased by 20%
 * Damage trace length increased by 15%
 * Time to equip/unequip +20%
 * New:
 * ADS spread reduced by 50%
 * Spread size reduced by 15%
 * Refire time increased by 10%
 * “High Frequency Chamber”
 * Refire time bonus reduced from -35% to -15%
 * Damage penalty reduced from -30% to -10%
 * Phasic Lancer
 * Damage increased from 50 to 56
 * Burst interval reduced from 0.075 s to 0.06 s
 * Changes to recoil behavior to make bullets hit closer together and consecutive fire to travel more
 * Base spread increased from 3 to 6
 * Maximum spread decreased from 12 to 8
 * Spread increase speed reduced from 1.5 to 1
 * Spread increases from movement reduced
 * Mods
 * “High-Efficiency Battery”
 * Clip size bonus reduced from +6 to +3
 * Reload time penalty reduced from +25% to +20%
 * “Single Shot Chamber”
 * Damage bonus reduced from +150% to +125%
 * Clip size penalty changed from -44% to -60%
 * Does not increase refire time anymore
 * New: Recoil increase rate +50%
 * “Energy Cycler”
 * Damage penalty changed from -10% to -12.5%
 * Spread increase rate changed from +15% to +20%
 * “High Frequency Emitter”
 * Burst Interval bonus reduced from -25% to -5%
 * KOMRAD
 * Damage reduced from 34 direct and 100 AoE to 25 direct and 75 AoE
 * ADS time reduced from 0,6 s to 0,5 s
 * Initial projectile speed increased from 4000 to 7000
 * Projectile acceleration increased from 5000 to 9000
 * Projectile radius increased from 2 cm to 20 cm
 * Base spread increased from 5 to 8
 * Max spread increased from 9 to 9.5
 * Spread multiplier while in the air increased from +50% to +75%
 * Spread reduction now starts earlier
 * AoE radius increased from 175 cm to 200 cm
 * AoE damage falloff range changed from 75 cm to 125 cm
 * Damage falloff changed from -25% to -50%
 * Mods
 * “Rapid Rockets”
 * Initial projectile speed bonus from +100% to +35%
 * “T.N.T Rockets”
 * AoE damage radius bonus decreased from +25% to +20%
 * Initial projectile speed penalty from -20% to -25%
 * “Big Bertha”
 * Damage bonus increased from +50% to +100%
 * Does not reduce spread anymore
 * New: Refire time penalty +10%
 * Initial projectile speed increased from 2000 to 5000
 * Does not delay projectile acceleration anymore
 * “Streamlined Chamber”
 * Spread reduction bonus decreased from -25% to -20%
 * ADS spread reduction bonus decreased from -25% to -20%
 * Burst interval penalty decreased from +30% to +25%
 * “Booster Chamber”
 * Initial projectile speed bonus decreased from +25% to +15%
 * “Heavy Weight Stock”
 * Recoil increase rate bonus adjusted from -25% to -50%
 * “Light Weight Stock”
 * Recoil increase rate penalty adjusted from +15% to +20%

KNOWN ISSUES

 * If your name contains special characters it is not shown properly.
 * Items still lose their upgrades when dropped, we’re working to remedy this in the future!