Say hello to Redeye, if you can spot him through the smoke! With this update, the reconnaissance and battlefield controller Redeye has arrived to make his mark on the battlefield. Beyond his smoke grenade and special eyepiece that makes him quite the team player, he also arrives with two new weapons: The Grandeur SR and Kukri knife. Bug fixes and other changes are here as well, so check out Redeye and everything else below!
New Merc: Redeye
The dossier on Redeye’s lengthy service in the Australian SAS is a thick one. Time after time he earned field promotions for outstanding bravery, until being busted back down to Trooper for insubordination, or refusal to follow orders, or both. By the time of his discharge for “knowing too much about everyone in the regiment”, he had an average rank of corporal, but no pension. Now that he’s taken to the private sector he’s his own boss for a change. Too bad his sole employee is a total buffoon who hates his waste-of-space boss.
Redeye is a mid to long-range specialist, with team-playing abilities that can seriously hinder the enemy’s ability to attack and defend, and make his own team more efficient in battle as well.
PRIMARY ABILITY: IR GOGGLES
By activating his IR Goggles, Redeye can see the world based on the heat given off by objects Mercs, lighting them up easily against their surroundings. Better yet, any enemies near the center of Redeye’s vision will be Spotted, including invisible Phantoms. Spotted Mercs will have their location displayed on the HUD of all of Redeye’s allies, just like if they were seen by Vassili’s Heartbeat Sensor, making them easy pickings for your team.
What makes this ability truly lethal is that, while normal sight is completely blocked by a Smoke Grenade’s cloud, Redeye’s IR Goggles work just fine. This allows Redeye to peer through the cloud, spotting anyone standing out in the open and letting all of his allies know exactly where they need to shoot.
SECONDARY ABILITY: SMOKE GRENADE
Redeye’s Smoke Grenade is the pinnacle of non-lethal battlefield control, pure elegance in simplicity. When thrown, it creates a large cloud of smoke, completely blocking vision in the area. While anyone can walk through it, they’ll have no idea what violent end awaits them on the other side.
While the cloud of smoke will slowly dissipate over time, there’s another way to get rid of it beyond waiting patiently. Explosive damage in the area of the smoke cloud will disperse it, clearing the way and restoring the sight lines on your terms. And you’ll want to take care of it quickly, because there’s only one way to see through the smoke…
INTRODUCING THE GRANDEUR SR
The Grandeur SR is Redeye’s default rifle, and fits in right between the Dreiss AR and PDP-70, featuring stopping power and range that rivals the PDP-70, but with a strong rate of fire and effectiveness when fired from the hip that lets it compete with the Dreiss AR at the same time. For the moment, the Grandeur SR is only on Loadout Cards for Redeye, including his default loadout card.
INTRODUCING THE KUKRI KNIFE
Dirty Bomb’s third knife, with a wicked edge designed to carve chunks out of the enemy. The primary attack is particularly devastating, the quick slice more than able to bring down many Mercs in only two swings. Currently Redeye is the only Merc with this new knife, his default Loadout Card having it to boot.
Redeye Loadout Details
LOADOUT CARDS
Redeye isn’t just limited to the Grandeur SR and Kukri, of course. He has a full array of Loadout Cards, giving him a variety of Weapons and Augments to better fit a variety of play styles.
EVERYTHING ELSE
Gameplay
[ul]
[li]Fixed bug where weapons would sometimes not fire if the button was pressed a fraction before the weapon raise animation completed[/li][li]Fixed Mechanic Augment not being as effective as it should have been[/li][li]Slightly reduced the interaction range for Carryable Objectives[/li][li]Resolved issues where any deployable station would not update team colors when changing team[/li][li]Added Sight Sensitivity Scale value in the options menu[/li][li]The default setting of 0 will scale sensitivity as before[/li][li]A value of 1 will not reduce sensitivity at all when ironsighting[/li][li]Fixed bug where completing Secondary Objectives wouldn’t always count towards the Mission[/li][/ul]
Balance
Arty
[ul]
[li]Increased Artillery Strike Damage and AoE Radius by ~15%[/li][li]Reduced Artillery targeting time to 266ms (from 400ms)[/li][/ul]
PDP-70
[ul]
[li]Bullets will no longer pass through players with this weapon[/li][li]Increased magazine size to 11 (from 9)[/li][li]Reduced rate of fire to 180rpm (from 200rpm)[/li][li]Reduced recoil when firing while scoped[/li][/ul]
Dreiss AR
[ul]
[li]Reduced rated of fire to 300rpm (from 360rpm)[/li][li]Reduced maximum bullet spread by ~20%[/li][/ul]
Cricket Bat
[ul]
[li]Sped up melee attack speed with the Cricket Bat by ~5%[/li][/ul]
General
[ul]
[li]Reduced the amount of XP required for 3-Star Game Mode Merc Missions to 7,500 (from 13,500)[/li][/ul]
User Interface
[ul]
[li]Added in a new, animated ‘spotted’ icon for enemy indicators[/li][li]Spectator scoreboard now uses correct spectator team colors[/li][li]Quick Chat from other players using different languages now shows up in the clients language[/li][li]Sorting Loadout Cards by date acquired now works correctly[/li][/ul]
Animation
[ul]
[li]Fixed some issues with the Stark AR reload animation[/li][li]Most Mercs now hold the Cricket Bat two-handed in third person[/li][li]Made the PDA tool visible when fast-arming C4[/li][/ul]
Audio
[ul]
[li]Fixed issues where certain melee attacks were using knife sounds incorrectly[/li][li]Added sound effects for the elevators in Underground[/li][li]General character bark fixes for exertions and kill spree dialogue[/li][li]Updated the Voting interface audio[/li][li]Added Unlock Audio for Cobalt Loadout Cards[/li][li]Improved the Health Pack healing audio[/li][/ul]
Sparks
[ul]
[li]Her Health Packs now restore more health when she has the Potent Packs Augment[/li][li]Sparks’ REVIVR will no longer damage friendly deployables[/li][/ul]
Fletcher
[ul]
[li]Sticky Bombs thrown at a player’s feet will no longer pin them to the ground[/li][/ul]
Bushwhacker
[ul]
[li]Turrets can no longer be placed inside other Turrets[/li][/ul]
Skyhammer
[ul]
[li]Explodydendron Augment now works correctly with Skyhammer’s Airstrike ability[/li][/ul]
Kira
[ul]
[li]The Orbital Laser now correctly respects friendly fire rules[/li][/ul]
Proxy
[ul]
[li]Fixed bug with team-identification glows around Proximity Mines[/li][/ul]
Known Issues
- [li]Parties - Party leaders are unable to search for a match after completing a matchmaking match[/li]Until this is fixed, players must disband their party and search again
[li]Parties - Party leader will occasionally be unable to invite after searching for a match and canceling the search[/li][li]Parties - If a member is kicked or leaves while searching for a match, the party cannot search for a new match[/li][li]Redeye - IR Goggles occasionally fail to activate when first joining a new server [/li]Functionality resumes after player gets killed or commits suicide with ‘K’