The Fletcher Update Patch Notes - 13/05/2015 v45627


(Chris Mullins) #1

Welcome to the latest update to take centre stage in Dirty Bomb. Along with balance changes and a ton of squashed bugs, we also welcome some User Interface upgrades, ‘Chapel’ map updates, experience earn-rate tweaks and of course, our new Merc ‘Fletcher’ joins the crew.

//youtu.be/70-O4_nNgkc

STICKY BOMB!!! The bombs are in town and there is only one guy man enough to handle them. Fletcher, a stylish combat engineer, is hauling his collection of sticky bombs to London along with his detonator to bring the pain…and a whole load of explosions.

‘Quick Play’ Update
We’ve spent a lot of time making tweaks to the ‘Quick Play’ function within the game. Now when you play, you will only be placed in servers with under a 100ms ping for better connectivity. Plus, we fixed an issue where it would try and match you into ‘Level Locked’ servers, so no more will you fail to connect for this reason. ‘Quick Play’ also takes the average skill-rating of the server into account when placing you to make for a much more balanced and enjoyable experience.

Ranked Play Level Cap
Upon receiving a lot of feedback from players about Ranked Match Making, we decided to reduce the level cap from 7 to 6 to increase the player pool. This will help a lot when searching for a game and should increase the population of ranked play.

Asia Now in Matchmaking
That’s right! Now when you want to go into a game, it is not just Europe, North America and Australia you can choose from, we have now added Asia into the Matchmaking system to give you a better and lag-free experience.

Full Breakdown

General Balance

[ul]
[li]Reduced third person crouching animation speed to better match the first-person view changes[/li][/ul]As well as providing more accurate feedback, this also goes a little way to counter the crouch-spam complaints players have been having

[ul]
[li]Spending more time in the air (wall jumping) after a Long Jump, it now reduces the recovery time when landing as intended[/li][/ul]This reverts a recent change that was introduced when optimising the movement system and should encourage a little more advanced movement

[ul]
[li]Reduced collision box of all thrown Grenades so they more accurately fit the model[/li][/ul]Grenades can now fit through smaller gaps and bounce of geometry more realistically, fixing a common frustration of many players

[ul]
[li]Made C4 easier to disarm by increasing the range of the tools and the size of the C4 detection box[/li][/ul]This is also improves the priority system when both Help-Up and Disarm are available options

[ul]
[li]Increased the explosive damage required to insta-gib to 150 (from 120)[/li][/ul]This is to reduce the occurrence of explosive insta-gibs, which will now only be awarded for point-blank hits with powerful explosives such as Frag Grenades

Experience System

[ul]
[li]Increased the XP given for support actions and general ability usage[/li][/ul]This is to balance out XP earn rates amongst the Mercs and also encourage more use of these abilities

[ul]
[li]Significantly increased XP given for completing or reversing objectives[/li][/ul]This is to better reward players who focus on objectives over combat, as they were previously being under represented

[ul]
[li]Removed Battlesense XP awarding[/li][/ul]The XP system is intended to be an obvious award and incentive for positive actions and Battlesense was too obscure and misunderstood to be fulfilling this function. With the above two changes, overall XP earning should remain about the same.

Mercs

Nader

[ul]
[li]Increased health to 110hp (from 100)[/li][/ul]This is to help her better fulfill her role of clearing out defensive positions which often requires her to expose herself to incoming fire

[ul]
[li]Reduced movement speed by ~2.5%[/li][/ul]Matching / compensating for the slight increase in health

[ul]
[li]Increased maximum Grenade Launcher Nade count to 5 (from 4) and reduced cooldown time per Nade to 7s (from 8)[/li][/ul]These changes are to partially compensate for the two below, but also makes her a little more effective at clearing out defences

[ul]
[li]Reduced velocity of grenade launcher projectiles by ~30%[/li][/ul]Grenade Launcher 'Nades maintain a similar trajectory but now travel slower, giving victims a little more time to react

[ul]
[li]Increased grenade launcher grenade fuse time to 1.7s (from 1.4s)[/li][/ul]This is to compensate for the slower travel time, still giving them a similar overall range

[ul]
[li]Martyrdom can no-longer be cancelled by gibbing Nader before it detonates[/li][/ul]Previously Martyrdom became largely useless at close range and was not immediately obvious or easily explained

[ul]
[li]Martyrdom detonation time increased to 0.9s (from 0.7s)[/li][/ul]To give players a little more time to escape since they can no longer cancel it by gibbing Nader

Fragger

[ul]
[li]Frag Grenade throwing velocity reduced by ~25%[/li][/ul]Frag Grenades maintain a similar trajectory but now travel slower, giving victims a little more time to react

[ul]
[li]Added a team-coloured trail to Fragger’s Grenades[/li][/ul]This will make them easier to spot and also help players know where Fragger is throwing them from

Vassili

[ul]
[li]Heartbeat Sensors throwing velocity reduced by ~25%[/li][/ul]This keeps all smaller thrown grenades at a consistent speed & trajectory, making them easier to learn

Weapons

[ul]
[li]Switching between movement states now has a greater impact on weapon spread, with slightly better rewards for crouching and greater penalties for jumping.[/li][/ul]Jumping spam in combat has been an on-going issue we’ve wanted to resolve without making the game feel sluggish or unresponsive. This should make jumping and firing less effective while also giving a slight additional spread benefit to crouching and other states.

[ul]
[li]Reduced sniper scope sway when moving[/li][/ul]In recent updates scope sway was increased, but has now been dramatically reduced.

K-121 Machine Gun

[ul]
[li]Increased minimum starting spread by ~10% [/li][/ul]This is to reduce initial tap-fire and burst accuracy which is currently making this MG the most accurate auto in the game

Levels

[ul]
[li]Added ammo-crates and bombsite markers to Overground Execution level[/li][li]Continued optimization work on Underground and Trainyard[/li][li]Rebuilt lighting and fixed numerous bugs on the Tutorial level[/li][li]Rebuilt lighting and audio-maps on all levels[/li][li]Secondary generator can no longer be cycled once the EV has reached the barricade on ‘Bridge’[/li][li]Redesigned first attackers spawn to fix spawn camping issue on Chapel[/li][/ul]
[ATTACH=CONFIG]13517[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]13516[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]13515[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]13518[/ATTACH]

User Interface

[ul]
[li]Improved ‘Play’ button flow[/li][li]Melee weapons no-longer count towards ‘Favourite Weapon’ in the front end, as everyone knows you run faster with the knife…[/li][li]Improved appearance of friends interface[/li][li]Added ‘Objective Specialist’ icon and text to appropriate Mercs in their Profile screens[/li][li]Reworded “Casual Match” to “Quick Play”[/li][li]Added Case count to the Loadouts tab[/li][li]Added deployable status indicators to the Ability HUD[/li][li]Added level progression to the front-end player avatar[/li][li]Disable play button when in lobby or matchmaking[/li][li]Adding shorter version of match start and end music for execution mode[/li][li]Improved FEL-IX Sniper Rifle audio and fixed some bugs[/li][li]Initial ambience pass on the Overground Execution level[/li][li]Added place-holder Commander VO lines to Overground [/li][li]Updated logic for team shuffle by public skill rating to give better matches[/li][li]Added support for shuffling teams as admin[/li][li]Updated daily missions involving XP to account for XP system changes[/li][/ul]

Notable Bug Fixes

[ul]
[li]Fixed some issued with the Loadout Card Trade Up screen[/li][li]Fixed issue’s regarding graphics settings not being correctly maintained between updates[/li][li]Fixed profile screen layout so it’s consistent with other screens[/li][li]Fixed Help-Up audio not playing[/li][li]Fixed missing third-person reload sounds for Shotguns[/li][li]Fixed bug with numerical keys not functioning when a Vote was called[/li][li]Fixed auto-barks not playing when players were revived[/li][li]Fixed issue with projectiles dealing double damage on actors they have collided directly[/li][li]Fixed issue with cooldown being (unintentionally) lost when cancelling some abilities[/li][li]Fixed wrong audio attenuation settings for Airstrike, Artillery Strike and Frags[/li][li]Fixed lots of bugs regarding public skill rating and retrieval[/li][li]Fixed grenade not exploding if fully cooked in hand[/li][li]Fixed knife attack impact audio[/li][li]Fixed turrets being deployable through doors or thin walls[/li][li]Fixed player accepted sound not playing on matchmaking in frontend[/li][li]Fixed issue with returning carryables teleporting deployables[/li][li]Fixed Execution not displaying overtime text in overtime[/li][li]Fixed players being stuck on the friends screen when kicked from a party[/li][/ul]


(spookify) #2

Great Patch! Lots of good stuff!


(Szakalot) #3

second that, love all the changes, looking forward to trying it out.

Esp. nader changes went in a good direction, more nades (but) at longer fuse means better AoE denial, without the immediate danger of being spammed by multiple nades. Slower fly-speed will increase the skill ceiling for direct hits, esp. at longer ranges, while still being dangerous when flanking unsuspecting players. Maybe a slight RoF buff will be welcome in the future? stats will tell you if people manage to play nader still.

Fragger nerf, esp. instagib reduction will have a great influence on comp metagame, it could very well be that he wont be nr1 pick every single time anymore.


(INF3RN0) #4

Nice nice nice. So when does this come out? Thursday?


(Violator) #5

Lots of good changes there. Especially liking the changes to the Chapel spawn and hopefully some fixes for team balancing. Is there any news on the ‘ghost slot’ bug? Glad to see the vote number key bug nailed :).

I understood battlesense in W:ET but I didn’t have a clue how it was generated in DB :).


(meat) #6

can’t wait to try it out. Hopefully it get released tomorrow before the Live stream.


(Runeforce) #7

I sounds like you say ‘you can **** stickies to detonate them.’ Can’t wait to try that one out!


(DarkangelUK) #8

“Added ammo-crates and bombsite markers to Overground Execution level” - So Execution is back in this update?


(PixelTwitch) #9

Reduced third person crouching animation speed to better match the first-person view changes
As well as providing more accurate feedback, this also goes a little way to counter the crouch-spam complaints players have been having

Will this also remove its ability to speed up L/R direction changes?

Spending more time in the air (wall jumping) after a Long Jump, it now reduces the recovery time when landing as intended
This reverts a recent change that was introduced when optimising the movement system and should encourage a little more advanced movement

Since you have removed most of the cool jumps bit by bit can we at least have the punishment lowered for the difference in Z height when landing? So that if I long jump into a wall jump but land on something high I get little punishment? Currently when climbing following a long jump, because your in the air for less time we get full punishment.

Can we get side dodge back?

Reduced collision box of all thrown Grenades so they more accurately fit the model
Grenades can now fit through smaller gaps and bounce of geometry more realistically, fixing a common frustration of many players

Nice look forward to trying this out…

Made C4 easier to disarm by increasing the range of the tools and the size of the C4 detection box
This is also improves the priority system when both Help-Up and Disarm are available options

Will this make defending the charge on Trainyard second objective even harder? and Terminal for that matter…

Increased the explosive damage required to insta-gib to 150 (from 120)
This is to reduce the occurrence of explosive insta-gibs, which will now only be awarded for point-blank hits with powerful explosives such as Frag Grenades

Like the idea but would still like to see range increased and damage reduced in general.

Increased the XP given for support actions and general ability usage
This is to balance out XP earn rates amongst the Mercs and also encourage more use of these abilities

I was hoping the double xp weekend was to get some figures on this… currently support actions already give far to much XP. Really surprised too see this here…

Significantly increased XP given for completing or reversing objectives
This is to better reward players who focus on objectives over combat, as they were previously being under represented

This was needed in some places, Just hope the XP for repairing the EV and Ramps never jumped up too high. Really considered this to be more of a C4 issue than anything else.

The XP system is intended to be an obvious award and incentive for positive actions and Battlesense was too obscure and misunderstood to be fulfilling this function. With the above two changes, overall XP earning should remain about the same.

Battlesense R.I.P 2015 - 2015, taken too young.

Nader

Increased health to 110hp (from 100)
This is to help her better fulfill her role of clearing out defensive positions which often requires her to expose herself to incoming fire

Reduced movement speed by ~2.5%
Matching / compensating for the slight increase in health

Increased maximum Grenade Launcher Nade count to 5 (from 4) and reduced cooldown time per Nade to 7s (from 8)
These changes are to partially compensate for the two below, but also makes her a little more effective at clearing out defences

Reduced velocity of grenade launcher projectiles by ~30%
Grenade Launcher 'Nades maintain a similar trajectory but now travel slower, giving victims a little more time to react

Increased grenade launcher grenade fuse time to 1.7s (from 1.4s)
This is to compensate for the slower travel time, still giving them a similar overall range

Martyrdom can no-longer be cancelled by gibbing Nader before it detonates
The previous behaviour meant that Martyrdom became largely useless at close range and was not immediately obvious or easily explain

Martyrdom detonation time increased to 0.9s (from 0.7s)
To give players a little more time to escape since they can no longer cancel it by gibbing Nader

Great, look forward to seeing how this will effect play. I would still however like to see direct hits be based on the nades velocity as right now the majority of the public seem to be aiming in from of players or trying to bounce off walls and through windows.

Fragger

Frag Grenade throwing velocity reduced by ~25%
Frag Grenades maintain a similar trajectory but now travel slower, giving victims a little more time to react

Added a team-coloured trail to Fragger’s Grenades
This will make them easier to spot and also help players know where Fragger is throwing them from

Cannot argue with that really, just hope it does not end up looking stupid.

Vassili

Heartbeat Sensors throwing velocity reduced by ~25%
This keeps all smaller thrown grenades at a consistent speed & trajectory, making them easier to learn

Doe this mean we can no longer get the same distance on them? same with fragger?

Switching between movement states now has a greater impact on weapon spread, with slightly better rewards for crouching and greater penalties for jumping.
Jumping spam in combat has been an on-going issue we’ve wanted to resolve without making the game feel sluggish or unresponsive. This should make jumping and firing less effective while also giving a slight additional spread benefit to crouching and other states.

FINALLY!!! lol, Should this also improve things for us players that long jump into fights or on the strange areas of maps where you need to jump just before a fight (trainyard is a prime example of having unfair fights due to jumping/elvation changes entering combat zones).

Reduced sniper scope sway when moving
This was a common complaint after the recent updates so has been dramatically reduced

Amen.

K-121 Machine Gun

Increased minimum starting spread by ~10%
This is to reduce initial tap-fire and burst accuracy which is currently making this MG the most accurate auto in the game

Has the spread increase been changed to take this extra 10% at the start into consideration, I still find the LMG bloom gets far to big far to fast in a prolonged fight.

Added ammo-crates and bombsite markers to Overground Execution level

Yet more reasons to take a Fragger instead of a field ops.
But seriously, Think this is a bad idea.

Redesigned first attackers spawn to fix spawn camping issue on Chapel

Was gutted upon seeing this… So you removed 4 of the most popular jumps in the game PLUS gave extra exit. Should have been one or the other in my honest opinion.

Added deployable status indicators to the Ability HUD

Cool, would also be cool to have a bigger icon somewhere on the screen in future though with the current deployables HP maybe?

Audio

Care to elaborate?

Fixed issue with projectiles dealing double damage on actors they have collided directly

Did Fletcher get a buff to compensate for this? He was barely viable to begin with really…

Fixed wrong audio attenuation settings for Airstrike, Artillery Strike and Frags

Does this basically mean we can hear them now? Also would the MG nest be included?


(BioSnark) #10

[QUOTE=shoe.;528219][ul]
[li]Switching between movement states now has a greater impact on weapon spread, with slightly better rewards for crouching and greater penalties for jumping.
[/li][/ul]Jumping spam in combat has been an on-going issue we’ve wanted to resolve without making the game feel sluggish or unresponsive. This should make jumping and firing less effective while also giving a slight additional spread benefit to crouching and other states.
[/QUOTE]
I wonder if ADAD spam will be an issue, next.

insert lamentation about direction of videogames.


(Szakalot) #11

Not sure what you mean by barely viable Pixel, since Darwinian patch Fletcher is a easier-to-control Nader, super spammy in chokes.

and the ‘audio’ line was just a formatting bug, like in every other patch notes before, lul


(PixelTwitch) #12

[QUOTE=Szakalot;528305]Not sure what you mean by barely viable Pixel, since Darwinian patch Fletcher is a easier-to-control Nader, super spammy in chokes.

and the ‘audio’ line was just a formatting bug, like in every other patch notes before, lul[/QUOTE]

Fletcher was viable because of the bug that they have just fixed.
“Fixed issue with projectiles dealing double damage on actors they have collided directly”

So I am guessing we could see a much lower damage per nade come out this time :slight_smile:


(Mustang) #13

Don’t have too much to say until trying it out.

Except thanks for posting ahead of the update for a change, it’s much appreciated.

Most things seem positive, others I have some concerns about, but like I said, will try it first.


#14

The audio feels… super strange. I can hear stuff happening on the other side of the map.


(prophett) #15

Get his message when trying to view those pictures;

prophett, you do not have permission to access this page. This could be due to one of several reasons:

Your user account may not have sufficient privileges to access this page. Are you trying to edit someone else’s post, access administrative features or some other privileged system?
If you are trying to post, the administrator may have disabled your account, or it may be awaiting activation.


(Erkin31) #16

Switching between movement states now has a greater impact on weapon spread, with slightly better rewards for crouching and greater penalties for jumping.
Jumping spam in combat has been an on-going issue we’ve wanted to resolve without making the game feel sluggish or unresponsive. This should make jumping and firing less effective while also giving a slight additional spread benefit to crouching and other states.

Nooooooo…
Are you seeking to deliver static gunfights ?


(fubar) #17

Don’t like the nader change, at all. I felt like she already had too much spam to begin with. If anything a damage increase to her nades was in order, but… instead giving her an extra 2 grenades per spawn cycle feels like a cheap cop-out to avoid another “fragger scandal”.

Also the audio sounds… very dull, muffled, as if under-water even. Especially dislike the sound changing depending on map’s location.
New explosives remind me of these:

Redesigned first attackers spawn to fix spawn camping issue on Chapel

This is going to backfire, really. It’s even easier to hide airstrikes and hit both exits, than it was before. :wink:

Fixed grenade not exploding if fully cooked in hand

Great, when can we expect explodydendron to be fixed as well? Nades still refuse to explode or deal damage half the time, whether it was cooked or not. All it takes for you is to hop on a test server and throw a bunch of nades at eachother…


(alphabeta) #18

Yeah…so there. :slight_smile:


(chickenNwaffles) #19

Less scope sway bois :smiley:


(ragnak) #20

Servers seems laggy as hell, dunno if thats just me, servers are crashing constantly and bugging out with 13/14 but it shows as 14/14. When can we expect some actual audio fixes ? Its honestly so bad that i dont feel like playing at times, can we at the very least get audible footsteps and fix to mg so i can at least tell that mg is shooting ? =/

Duh, couldnt play it for more then 1h. All the issues we have in the game for years now are getting way too heavy.

As for flatcher, he seems really bad. His shotgun is kinda fun to use but lack burst of shotguns or sustain damage of automatic weapons with idiotic reload, his secondary is horrible, i rather get that 7 bullet pistol and his ability is so clunky to use that its not even worth using aside from setting traps, and even then i rather kill people with my gun.

Oh and that nader change wasnt exactly smart either.

Get your **** together guys, i beg of you -_-.