Fine Tuning Update v48857 - 19/08/2015


(Chris Mullins) #1

It’s time for another Fine Tuning Update! No Mercs or Maps with this one, instead we’re giving you a plethora of balance changes and fixes, including one major addition we know you’ve been waiting for…

New Anti-Cheat System

Over the past several months, we have been working to implement a new anti-cheat system. NGS has been designed to allow us to more easily and efficiently protect Dirty Bomb from cheating and abusive programs.

While we are confident that NGS will be an effective tool against cheaters in the long-term, we’d like to urge patience in the short-term. There is no silver-bullet solution for this problem, and while this is an important step forward, there may be some issues as we work to improve NGS and fix any issues that might arise. As always, we look forward to your feedback in the comments below about this major change to Dirty Bomb.

Balance Changes

We’ve been keeping an eye on your feedback, as well as the wealth of data that our servers have recorded, and as a result we are making a number of balance changes with this month’s Fine Tuning Update. While there are a few tweaks to our Mercs, the biggest changes have come to the weapons, many of them receiving improved handling and reduced recoil to boost their combat potential, while a few adjustments have been made to other weapons that were performing far above the pack.

As with all balance changes, we look forward to hearing your thoughts on these changes once you’ve tried them out in-game.

Mercs

Nader

[ul]
[li]Increased health to 120hp (from 110hp)[/li][li]Reduced movement speed by ~2.5%[/li][/ul]

Rhino

[ul]
[li]Increased movement speed by ~2.5%[/li][/ul]

Skyhammer

[ul]
[li]Airstrike Markers will now always deal damage when they first detonate[/li][li]Increased cooldown when failing to call in an Airstrike to 20s (from 15s)[/li][li]Reduced Airstrike Marker detonation radius by ~10%[/li][/ul]

Sparks

[ul]
[li]Increased Med Pack healing amount to 30hp (from 25hp)[/li][li]Increased the battery charge of the REVIVR so it takes ~10% longer to drain[/li][/ul]

Weapons

M4A1 Assault Rifle

[ul]
[li]Reduced effective range by ~5%[/li][/ul]

BR-16 AR

[ul]
[li]Reduced bullet spread by ~5%[/li][li]Reduced recoil kick by ~5%[/li][/ul]

Stark AR

[ul]
[li]Reduced bullet spread by ~5%[/li][li]Reduced recoil kick by ~5%[/li][/ul]

Timik-47 AR

[ul]
[li]Reduced bullet spread by ~5%[/li][li]Reduced recoil kick by ~5%[/li][/ul]

Dreiss AR

[ul]
[li]Reduced recoil kick by ~10%[/li][/ul]

K-121 MG

[ul]
[li]Increased magazine size to 55 (from 50)[/li][li]Reduced spread increase rate by ~10%[/li][/ul]

Hollunds 880

[ul]
[li]Increased effective range by ~25%[/li][/ul]

Remburg 7

[ul]
[li]Reduced pellet spread by ~8%[/li][/ul]

Ahnuhld-12 Shotgun

[ul]
[li]Increased effective range by ~50%[/li][/ul]

SMG-9

[ul]
[li]Reduced bullet spread by ~5%[/li][li]Reduced recoil kick by ~5%[/li][/ul]

Hochfir SMG

[ul]
[li]Reduced recoil kick by ~10%[/li][/ul]

Crotzni SMG

  • [li]Increased starting bullet spread by ~10%[/li]This is due to the Crotzni being slightly more powerful than all other SMGs

All Melee Weapons

[ul]
[li]Removed the turn speed limit from Primary Attacks (ie slashes) for all melee weapons[/li][/ul]

Kukri Knife

[ul]
[li]Extended the Kukri’s melee collision box to improve its range[/li][/ul]

EVERYTHING ELSE

General

[ul]
[li]Updated the way Player Skill is calculated in non-competitive games to improve team balance[/li][li]Reduced CPU load on dedicated servers by ~20% which should result in smoother games[/li][/ul]

User Interface

[ul]
[li]Team Shuffle by Skill votes now only require 51% of players to vote Yes to pass[/li][li]Players can once again double-click to select Loadout Cards on the Trade-Up screen[/li][li]News section on front-end now cycles between three most recent posts[/li][li]Restored colon in lobby chat messages[/li][li]Added error message when failing to join a Party[/li][li]Fixed maps not being selected automatically in Quick Join[/li][li]Fixed popups disappearing too quickly to be clicked on[/li][/ul]

Animation

[ul]
[li]Improved the first-person throwing animations for packs[/li][li]Improved the jump and landing first-person camera movement[/li][/ul]

Gameplay

[ul]
[li]Added an upper XP limit of 99,999XP per match to help protect against potential farming exploits[/li][li]Updated 4-second Spawn Point invulnerability - If a player fires, they are dropped to a 50% damage shield rather than losing it entirely[/li]This change does not impact medic revives
[li]Reduced amount of view kick when shot by ~10%[/li][li]Increased view kick recovery speed by ~35%[/li][/ul]

Audio

[ul]
[li]Continued audio-mixing pass to improve gameplay feedback[/li][li]Fixed issue where killing shot of Sniper Rifles could not be heard by the victim[/li][li]Added audio for picking-up, dropping and delivering the Carryable Objective[/li][li]Added subtle audio confirmation for Kill and Finish notifications[/li][li]Fine tuned third-person audio for weapon firing[/li][li]Updated Main Menu audio[/li][li]Added EV firing sound to Bridge[/li][li]Improved Merc audio for incoming damage[/li][li]Polish pass for all Merc dialogue[/li][/ul]

Arty

[ul]
[li]Moved Artillery Targeter further from the camera when held in first-person[/li][/ul]

Fletcher

[ul]
[li]Moved Sticky-Bomb Detonator further from the camera when held in first-person[/li][/ul]

Kira

[ul]
[li]Fixed the Orbital Laser audio not updating with distance[/li][/ul]

Phantom

[ul]
[li]Fixed some bugs relating to activating Refractive Armor[/li][/ul]

Redeye

[ul]
[li]Fixed bug where IR Goggles could occasionally not be enabled[/li][li]Fixed bug where some items could continue to glow white after IR Goggles have been disabled[/li][li]Fixed bug where Smoke Grenade could block delivery of Carryable Objectives[/li][/ul]

Sparks

[ul]
[li]Improved third-person audio reverb and reflections for REVIVR shots[/li][/ul]

Weapons

M4A1 Assault Rifle

[ul]
[li]Reload audio now more closely matches the animation[/li][/ul]

K-121 MG

[ul]
[li]Added audio for raising and lowering weapon[/li][/ul]

Ahnuhld-12 Shotgun

[ul]
[li]Improved the fire and lever-action animations[/li][/ul]

SMG-9

[ul]
[li]Updated first-person positioning to make it more consistent with other weapons[/li][/ul]

Cricket Bat

[ul]
[li]Moved the Cricket Bat further from the camera when held in first-person[/li][/ul]

Notable Bug Fixes

[ul]
[li]Fixed Steady Augment not adding health to all deployables[/li][li]Fixed several Carryable Objective pick-up and delivery behaviour issues[/li][li]Fixed bug where players could be stuck constantly reloading Shotguns[/li][li]Fix for objectives not resetting correctly in Stopwatch[/li][/ul]


(Domipheus) #2

OOFT. That’s some update. Can’t wait to try it out.


(DarkangelUK) #3

Anti-Cheat, recoil reduction for Hochfir and better spawn point protection… colour me happy \o/


(BioSnark) #4

Welp, this all looks quite promising indeed.

Only things I don’t look forward to are nerfing via spread, particularly initial and slower movement speed.


(Domipheus) #5

And:
Removed the turn speed limit from Primary Attacks (ie slashes) for all melee weapons
:stroggbanana:


(shibbyuk) #6

Sounds like a nice set of changes :slight_smile: Like the view kick reduction and fingers crossed the anticheat will get results.

Don’t agree with making all the mercs sound Polish, though. You’re ruining the diversity.


(stealth6) #7

What does NGS stand for? Hope it’s not Nexon X X


(Szakalot) #8

and:

less aimpunch

Still waiting for:

  • redeye weapon’s Ironsights fixed
  • Fletcher sticky bombs disappearing

(spookify) #9

[QUOTE=shoe.;537214]

It’s time for another Fine Tuning Update! No Mercs or Maps with this one

[/QUOTE]

This patch far exceeds my expectations.

I really dont even know where to start because really have got hit on and improved in some way.

Anti-Cheat Yes Please!!! Done - Work in Progress still but steps in the right Direction.

Balance Changes = Amazing! Need I say more? No!

SD obviously could not fit everything in this update like a fix to the Semi-Auto bug or a few other things BUT:

People got their wish with the AimPunch/Pain Twitch/View Kick!

  • I personally dont really notice it and I guess I will notice it less.
  • I have been playing this game for almost 3 years and I actually thought it was in the game in some form for that whole time.
  • I prefer this DB Pain Twitch system much better then ET’s. I want my bullets to go where my Cross-Hair Goes!!!
  • If you still dont like it learn to adapt! You got shot first and it through off your aim. Re-set, poke a corner or continue to fight.
  • I really dont find it that hard to compensate for especially for really good players. Pro’s/Top players can feel and react to pain twitch and either adjust their cross-hair, change there movement action or abandon the fight to re-set. What is also nice is that it is based on Damage so your subconscious kicks on and alerts you that you might loss this fight.

Also happy to see no KEK-10 Changes!!

*One Balance update I would like to see is a slight reduction on Spark Packs and also possible making them a little bigger or the grab area a little bigger.

*Why no Blishlok Changes?

Anyone notice how they worded this update “No Mercs or Maps with this one”???

  • OR Maps? Humm

(Ashog) #10

I am afraid of potential death of long TTK. But let’s see.

What I really wonder why the nerfs to Skyhammer’s airstrike cooldown when failing to airstrike and why beacon splash damage reduction. That surely couldn’t be influenced by Echo data, right?

Otherwise really looking forward to test, lots of nice things.
My hopes for this/next patches are also, among other stuff, is that they improve the popularity of Arty somehow (least played merc) and improve the normalization of the volume of some vchats which sometimes are too silent (e.g. see some phrases by sawbonez, rhino, etc.).


(BMXer) #11

The Crotzni nerf is so Brinkish! The reason the average hip fire accuracy is higher with the Crotzni is because the better players use it more! The cards with the best augments also have the Crotzni. Good players who will have a higher hip fire accuracy with any weapon. The loadout card system forces the Crotzni into the hands of better players. This pretty much invalidates that chart you posted.

Fix the loadout card system before you Brink this game any more please!

And ive yet to play this patch yet but the shotgun buffs sound absolutely atrocious!


(Ashog) #12

[QUOTE=BMXer;537227]The Crotzni nerf is so Brinkish! The reason the average hip fire accuracy is higher with the Crotzni is because the better players use it more! The cards with the best augments also have the Crotzni. Good players who will have a higher hip fire accuracy with any weapon. The loadout card system forces the Crotzni into the hands of better players. This pretty much invalidates that chart you posted.

Fix the loadout card system before you Brink this game any more please!

And ive yet to play this patch yet but the shotgun buffs sound absolutely atrocious![/QUOTE]

SMG-9 iz teh new Crotzni :slight_smile:


(BMXer) #13

Yea, but the loadout cards for the SMG-9 are not as good as the ones for the Crotzni in almost every scenario… hence the reason good players use the Crotzni more, which in turn inflates the accuracy stats.
When only casuals use the SMG-9 and literally only 1 good player(lumfish) uses the SMG-9, its going to screw the stats up.

Give us a card with Get up, mechanic, potent packs AND the SMG-9 before you go Brinking everything up please!

Getting all Brink and just increasing spread is dumb imho. Splash Damage LOVES them some RNG!


(Amerika) #14

[QUOTE=Szakalot;537222]and:

less aimpunch

Still waiting for:

  • redeye weapon’s Ironsights fixed
  • Fletcher sticky bombs disappearing[/QUOTE]

Well, due to how dev cycles work I’d wager they are only just now maybe evaluating working on them. And Shoe at least did talk about Fletcher fixes coming soon on the dev streaming going on right now.


(spookify) #15

Reaction after 45 Minutes of Play:

Hochfir SMG is back to its former glory and an amazing gun to use.

My mouse feel must more responsive and Game feels smoother.

  • With that feel it feels like I am getting hit faster.
  • However I have lost 20 Frames…

With getting hit faster it feels like the TTK is slightly faster then it was.

The SMG’s pack a crazy punch when I was a fragger and it was like I was in an earthquake. I think I was getting rocked in the head from mid-range quite hard by an SMG-9. Sort of made me sick and needed to concentrate a lot harder.

Dreiss AR is OK but can not carry because of the slow ROF. Plus you never know when the bug will pop up.

SMG-9 - I really dont notice much of a difference and like the Hochfir and Kek-10 much better.

High level people where cleaning up with the K-121 while I was sticking to the BR-16… I will need to keep playing but the game felt different.

I notice Aim Punch 100% more then I ever have in this patch? Come someone explain this?


(spookify) #16

[QUOTE=BMXer;537231]Yea, but the loadout cards for the SMG-9 are not as good as the ones for the Crotzni in almost every scenario… hence the reason good players use the Crotzni more, which in turn inflates the accuracy stats.
When only casuals use the SMG-9 and literally only 1 good player(lumfish) uses the SMG-9, its going to screw the stats up.

Give us a card with Get up, mechanic, potent packs AND the SMG-9 before you go Brinking everything up please!

Getting all Brink and just increasing spread is dumb imho. Splash Damage LOVES them some RNG![/QUOTE]

You have that… Founders Sawbonze


(ragnak) #17

I see that echo overlord is still the deciding factor for most things. I cant really take this patch seriously when you add even more rng to crotzni (slowly turning it into brink weapon) while ignoring fragger and vassili becuase those seems to be an non issue for low level play.

I understand that there is obviously someone at SD that loves fragger but this was getting silly month ago, now its just unprofessional.


(DarkangelUK) #18

[QUOTE=ragnak;537235]I see that echo overlord is still the deciding factor for most things. I cant really take this patch seriously when you add even more rng to crotzni (slowly turning it into brink weapon) while ignoring fragger and vassili becuase those seems to be an non issue for low level play.

I understand that there is obviously someone at SD that loves fragger but this was getting silly month ago, now its just unprofessional.[/QUOTE]

I’m guessing the reason for it is the Crotzni is above all over SMG’s and there shouldn’t really be a ‘best’ weapon

As for making it ‘Brinkish’, that leads me to believe you didn’t play Brink or you don’t play DB, one of the two. Brinks spread and bloom was bloody massive, wayyyyyy higher than any SMG in this game.

Any way I’m a Hochfir man so I’m happy :smiley:


(tangoliber) #19

Yay for accuracy and recoil increases! (I will ignore the few items of accuracy decreases and movement decrease out of respect for all of the accuracy increases.)


(tangoliber) #20

[QUOTE=DarkangelUK;537240]I’m guessing the reason for it is the Crotzni is above all over SMG’s and there shouldn’t really be a ‘best’ weapon

As for making it ‘Brinkish’, that leads me to believe you didn’t play Brink or you don’t play DB, one of the two. Brinks spread and bloom was bloody massive, wayyyyyy higher than any SMG in this game.

Any way I’m a Hochfir man so I’m happy :D[/QUOTE]

While it is true that Brink’s spreads were massive in comparison… The Crotzni was still too inaccurate for my taste.
But…they increased the accuracy on so many weapons, so I’m not going to complain.
Thanks Splash Damage!