The Kira Rhino Update - 27/05/2015 v46253


(Chris Mullins) #1

New Mercs, Leagues, more Credits, and all manner of Loadout Card goodness are all headed your way in the latest Dirty Bomb update. There’s also a fine assortment of fixes and balance changes. Let’s dive right in, shall we?

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Update Highlights

New Mercs

Not just one, but two new Mercs are joining Dirty Bomb’s roster in this update, and they’re both bringing their favorite toys of destruction with them:

Kira

//youtu.be/mz4Mr3HVqFI

A powerful support character who can rain hell from above with an orbital laser strike.

Kira’s devastating Orbital Strike is highly accurate, dealing a lot of damage in a very tight area. Also, she can aim her pet beam of fire while it’s still firing, allowing her to steer it around the battlefield to damage multiple enemies - perfect for clearing out defenses and campers. She can also deploy an Ammo Station, which will keep all her friends around it well supplied.

Kira can be purchased from the Barracks for 50,000 Credits or US$9.99 (or local equivalent).

Rhino

//youtu.be/6A3dxJUHX7w

A walking tank armed with a massive minigun that literally spits death.

Rhino is perfect at holding down enemy approach routes, soaking up damage and suppressing multiple enemies. Advancing towards him directly is not recommended: his minigun isn’t the most accurate weapon but it does a LOT of damage. He’s a slow but potent presence on the battlefield, forcing enemies to take cover or go elsewhere. You can avoid him and take the long route round, but then that’s what he wants you to do.

Rhino can be purchased from the Barracks for 50,000 Credits or US$9.99 (or local equivalent).

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Leagues and Rankings

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Leagues and Rankings have arrived in Dirty Bomb! These are enabled for all Competitive Matches, so if you want your ranking, competitive Stopwatch mode’s your ticket. After completing a series of placement games, you’ll gain your first league ranking. You can see your current rank on the Home tab, as well as next to each game mode within the Competitive tab when finding a match.

Over time, your ranking will update to reflect your overall skill and match performance. In a nutshell, winning matches will see your rank increase, which will eventually result in promotion to a higher division. Losses will work against you, and can see you demoted if there’s enough of them. There are also penalties for leaving Competitive Matches early, so bear that in mind when diving into that mode.

There’s a lot of math going on behind the scenes, and all of that should result in competitive matches being a lot more, well, competitive.

This release is only the first step - we’ll be refining and adding to this system in the future, so be sure to let us know what you think of it.

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More Ways to Earn Credits

Amassing those precious Credits is what Merc life is all about and we’ve added several new ways to do just that.

New Match Bonuses

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You’ll earn 250 bonus credits Credits for completing your first match of the day in each of Dirty Bomb’s game modes. Better yet, there’s an extra bonus of 250 Credits for getting your first win too. Cha-ching

Improved Mission System

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We’ve made a whole bunch of improvements to the mission system. For starters, missions now come in several difficulty flavors (look for the star rating!), which affect their requirements as well as the payout when you complete them.

If you couldn’t get enough of them before, you’ll be happy to hear that missions now refill every three hours instead of every day. Speaking of which, you can also abandon unwanted missions, and they’ll be replaced with the next three-hourly drop. Use this power wisely. Or just use it.

Credit Boosters

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If you’re still yearning for more Credits, you can now get Credit Boosters from the Store. They come in 6, 12, and 18-hour flavors, boosting your Credit earnings by +100% for the duration, and will only be active while you’re actually playing a match, so none of that time will go to waste.

6 Hour Credit Booster: US$2.99
12 Hour Credit Booster: US$5.99
18 Hour Credit Booster: US$7.99

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Loadout Cards

New Rarity: Cobalt

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Cobalt is Dirty Bomb’s latest Loadout Card tier, complete with its own set of stylish Merc outfits and weapon skins. Cobalt cards are rarer than Gold, and are available for every Merc in the game.

Remember, while rarities beyond Bronze net your rarer bling, you’ll get no additional gameplay benefits. But hey, you’ll look extra swish!

More Skins for Gold and Silver

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Speaking of swish, this update brings with it several brand-new outfits and weapon skins for Silver and Gold rarity Loadout Cards. Collect away!

Previewing Loadout Cards

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To help you get the most from all this new visual goodness, we’ve also added a great new way to preview your Loadout Cards in the main menu: Clicking one of your Loadout Cards will now display a 3D preview of the Merc and their weapon alongside a healthy buffet of weapon stats and augment information.

Filtering and Sorting

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Bring order to your Loadout Card palace with several new filtering and sorting options, including by rarity and by Merc.

New Ways to Get Loadout Cards

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Elite Cases

Guaranteed to drop at least a Silver rarity Loadout Card, our new Elite Cases are perfect for those going after the rarest skins in the game. Elite Cases come in three bundles in Store: 1 Elite Case at $4.99, 5 Elite Cases at $19.99 and 10 Premium Cases at $34.99 (or local equivalent).

Bronze Card Shop

Got your eye on a specific Bronze Loadout Card? Visit the Loadout Cards tab in the Store to preview and unlock it for 17,500 Credits or $3.49 (or local equivalent).

Bronze Card Bundles

Perfect for those who want All The Choice. Get all of the Bronze Loadout Cards for your favorite Merc at a discount in the Store’s new Bundles tab. You’ll be able to pick up a full set for any Merc for 75,000 Credits or US$14.99 (or local equivalent).

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Full Changelog

Balancing

Nader

[ul]
[li]Increased Nade velocity by ~10% - this is intended to make it a little easier to land direct hits
[/li][/ul]
Reduced Nade fuse time to 1.5s (from 1.7s) - to compensate for the above change and make them a little harder to avoid

Ahnuld-12

[ul]
[li]Increased effective range by ~15%
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Improves the effectiveness and emphasising the unique longer-range element of this flechette shotgun

K-121 Machine Gun

[ul]
[li]Increased spread and horizontal recoil by ~10%
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This should mean the K-121 MG is no longer the most accurate automatic weapon in the game

Dreiss AR

[ul]
[li]Increased minimum and recoil spread by ~10%
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This weapon was marginally too effective in the hands of good players but will remain more accurate than most rifles

User Interface

[ul]
[li]Competitive Matchmaking tab now unlocks at level 5 (down from level 6)
[/li][li]Home screen now displays progress to next level and a list of friends that are currently playing and joinable
[/li][li]Player’s league ranking is now visible on Home, Competitive Match, and Match Review screens
[/li][li]Inspecting a Loadout Card now displays a 3D preview of its Merc outfit and weapon skin
[/li][li]Loadouts screens now feature sorting and filtering options
[/li][li]Missions widget on Home Tab now shows time to next refill
[/li][li]Friends list now displays more information, including current map and game-mode being played
[/li][li]Players are no longer sent back to the Store tab after opening each case
[/li][li]Updated the Play sub-menu text to better reflect their functionality
[/li][li]Updated matchmaking region check boxes to use ticks to be more readable
[/li][li]Renamed “Mercs” tab to “Barracks”
[/li][li]Access to Equipment Cases & Bronze Loadout Cards in the Store is now unlocked at Level 2
[/li][li]Access to Bundles, Elite Cases & Credits Boosters in the Store is now unlocked at Level 3
[/li][li]Changed Closed Beta HUD watermark to be less intrusive
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Levels

[ul]
[li]Updated ambient lighting on Underground
[/li][li]Numerous collision fixes on Underground & Terminal
[/li][li]Removed some visual clutter from Bridge and Terminal
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Art

[ul]
[li]Rebalanced texture brightness on some Founder skins
[/li][li]Improved character lighting quality and contrast on all maps
[/li][li]Minor balances on various environment textures
[/li][li]Toned down the red on Nader’s default skin
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Audio

[ul]
[li]Reworked the reverb functionality for all audio in-game
[/li][li]Updated mix for Fletcher’s front-end VO
[/li][li]Added Loadout unlocking audio to reflect card rarity
[/li][li]Added interface audio to the Trade Up screen and Case drops
[/li][li]Fixed issues with Health Pack and Defibs
[/li][li]Updated timings for intro dialogue on Underground and Bridge
[/li][li]Quickchat now correctly uses the radio effect based on distance
[/li][li]Updated the volume of Merc Quickchats to be consistent
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Animation

[ul]
[li]Updated third-person reload animations for PDP-70 Sniper Rifle
[/li][li]Updated Dreiss AR reload animation to match gameplay reload timings
[/li][li]Fixed Vassili’s fingers not being correctly skinned
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Gameplay

[ul]
[li]The setName console command can no-longer be used to override the Steam player name
[/li][li]Incoming damage view kick is reduced but now scales up based on damage received
[/li][li]Removed death count and suicide XP when changing teams
[/li][li]Reduced direct hit bonus for packs to 10XP (from 30XP) as it was mostly awarding ‘farming’ players
[/li][li]The amount of XP awarded for Ammo Given is now directly proportional to the amount of Ammo restocked
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Notable Bug Fixes

[ul]
[li]Fixed a couple of known crashes
[/li][li]Fixed issue where two music streams could play at the same time
[/li][li]Removed the silencer from the Selbstadt .40 obituary icon
[/li][li]Fixes for voting whilst dead and spectating
[/li][li]Fixed issues with projectiles dealing more damage than they should on certain targets
[/li][li]Fixed some issues with Sawbonez default skin
[/li][li]Added correct Stark AR obituary icon
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KNOWN ISSUES

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[li]Match Review: Penalties for small or imbalanced matches are applied to Bonuses instead of the Base Fee
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(stealth6) #2

What’s going on with the pricing on the credit booster packs? Is it some kind of psychological trick to make you buy the most expensive pack? Secondly 18 hours doesn’t seem like a very long time (yes, I did read “actual game time”). Lastly I’m the type of person that would go for the booster pack if I get anything at all, but with the current pricing it seems like you get more for your money by just buying the merc you want.

EDIT: Does the booster pack apply to daily missions & daily bonuses?


(Szakalot) #3

Lots n lots of goodness. Very impressive work; looks like you’re really nipping the P2W whine in the bud.

Some concerns:

  • what bout ‘silver/gold exclusive cards?’ - cards that are available as higher ranks, but not as bronze?
  • Don’t see weapon/ability switching bug (can’t fire as soon as weapon is raised)
  • don’t see sticky bombs disappearing fixed either : (

(Szakalot) #4

[QUOTE=stealth6;529441]What’s going on with the pricing on the credit booster packs? Is it some kind of psychological trick to make you buy the most expensive pack? Secondly 18 hours doesn’t seem like a very long time (yes, I did read “actual game time”). Lastly I’m the type of person that would go for the booster pack if I get anything at all, but with the current pricing it seems like you get more for your money by just buying the merc you want.

EDIT: Does the booster pack apply to daily missions & daily bonuses?[/QUOTE]

don’t know what the earn rates are, but constant 18 hours of play should give…15-20k credits? Make that 40k, hmm, thats almost price of a full merc for barely enough to actually buy one. If it applied to missions/bonuses, would be a perfect way to decrease grind, otherwise it does sound like not enough to warrant buying one.
Then again, with missions refilling every 3 hours; it would be probably too much.


(rookie1) #5

Nice Update ! Good Work !


(Runeforce) #6

I hope those cobalt cards will always give you a loadout you don’t have, since they are so expensive.

Or better yet, being able to pick the exact card.


(dommafia) #7

holy s*** I’m driving and I’m debating whether or not to park on the side and read this whole s***. Nice


(spookify) #8

A few things really pop out in this patch! Very Nice Work SD!

Leagues! I really hope people will start to solo que now! Stats next? :wink:

Yet? I like the idea of skin cards but I do not like how they are attached to the Perks! I have said my peace with this.

Smooth working his but off and I like it! I really like these changes!

[QUOTE=shoe.;529435]
Gameplay

[ul]
[li]Incoming damage view kick is reduced but now scales up based on damage received[/li][/ul][/QUOTE]
This is Huge! So glad this made it in finally!!! :stroggtapir:

All of this is amazing also! Hard to go through all of this and break it down but great work!!

I dont see anything about performance?


(shibbyuk) #9

Nice, looking forward to it.

I first started playing DB during one of the competitive mode tests, so I dread to think what my rank will be!

Will stats, when they arrive, be linked to all game modes?


(Anti) #10

[QUOTE=shibbyuk;529454]

Will stats, when they arrive, be linked to all game modes?[/QUOTE]

They’ve not arrived yet, so technically they could be anything :slight_smile:


(shibbyuk) #11

I’m sure you’ll have some wonderfully inventive ways to officially tell me how bad I am :wink:


(retsy) #12

awesome :smiley:


(amazinglarry) #13

I’m having trouble enlarging the images - gives me a permissions error :frowning:


(BAMFana) #14

Nice update, many good changes and additions.

The introduction of Kira really highlights one of my major issues wth the loadout system, however. The availability of different primary weapons really waters down the differences between the mercs. When Kira was first introduced, she had a unique playstyle, since she was the only merc who had a burst-fire rifle (which also allowed for specific balancing of the stark rifle according to her strengths and weaknesses), but now she may as well just be called the female arty since they can both use the same weapons. I personally feel that the game would be much “sharper” if mercs were strictly associated wih their primary weapon (ie. that’s the only weapon they’re allowed to use), while the loadout cards could be used to switch sidearms, knives, etc.

[QUOTE=Szakalot;529444]Some concerns:

  • what bout ‘silver/gold exclusive cards?’ - cards that are available as higher ranks, but not as bronze?[/QUOTE]
    This is a very relevant concern. Sawbones’ silver/gold tier exclusive card is a good example of the issues these cards cause, since it is hands down superior to all the other cards (it’s the only card that combines the best weapon with the two best perks). Very unfortunate that this card is not obtainable through the new bronze bundles.

(Mustang) #15

I think most people will agree, however it was stated the reason for this is not a lack of wanting to, but rather a lack of resources and priorities to make the changes.

I can only hope that the game is successful and in 1-2 years time mercs will get an overhaul and become more unique.


(Raviolay) #16

Is there any actual content coming before “open beta” otherwise known as release.


(Ashog) #17

Nice changes!..but horizontal recoil? I thought it was removed long time ago… I guess not.

Will the league/proficiency rankings we zeroed after beta is over?


(Anti) #18

[QUOTE=Ashog;529474]

Will the league/proficiency rankings we zeroed after beta is over?[/QUOTE]

I don’t believe so, no. What you get now will be kept. That said, bear in mind that matchmaking is still a very ‘beta’ feature, so there may be some re-calibration (increased rates of skill rating change) over the next few weeks and months. We’ll clearly message those if they do happen.


(DarkangelUK) #19

Woohoo Kira, the 1st merc I’ll be rushing to grab :slight_smile:


(montheponies) #20

good stuff, any news on the issue with the UI for those of us using G-Sync?