Fine Tuning Update v50088 - 22/09/2015


(Chris Mullins) #1

It’s time for another Fine Tuning update! Along with our usual round of Balance Changes and Bug Fixes, we’re making a significant update to the Lobby screen. Read on for more…

Lobby Changes

The lobby is getting an overhaul. All players now settle in a single stack on the right, and more space is given to your Squad. Changing your Mercs and Loadouts is now a simpler process, with the option to quickly change the Loadout Card of a Merc already in your squad.

Lobby Timer Changes

We’ve sped up the timers between matches to get you from game to game a little bit faster!

[ul]
[li]Warmup Duration to 15s (from 20s).
[/li][li]Game Review Duration to 25s (from 30s).
[/li][li]Lobby Map Voting Time to 15s (from 25s).
[/li][/ul]

Objective Mode Lobby Changes

We’ve changed how teams are organized in our public, casual Objective matches. To improve team balance and the quality of matches, players are not assigned a team until just before the match begins, and Locking In is no longer necessary.

For those that prefer playing on the same team as your friends, this change does not affect Private Matches, Stopwatch Mode or other, non-public Objective matches.

Balance Changes

Phantom

[ul]
[li]Significantly reduced the visibility of his Refractive Armor when moving slowly
[/li][/ul]

Sparks

[ul]
[li]Reduced the amount of time REVIVR spends overheating to 3.3s (from 5.0s)
[/li][li]Fixed bug where REVIVR battery drained faster with certain Augments
[/li][li]
[/li][/ul]

Fragger

[ul]
[li]Reduced maximum Frag Grenade count to 1 (from 2)
[/li][li]Reduced Frag Grenade cooldown to 17s (from 30s)
[/li][/ul]

Bushwhacker

[ul]
[li]Reduced Turret health to 110hp (from 120hp)
[/li][li]Increased Turret lock-on time to 0.6s (from 0.5s)
[/li][/ul]

PDP-70 Sniper Rifle

[ul]
[li]Reduced magazine size to 10 rounds (from 11)
[/li][li]Increased reload time to 2.8s (from 2.6s)
[/li][/ul]

KEK-10 SMG

[ul]
[li]Reduced effective range to 18m (from 19m)
[/li][li]Increased reload time to 2.0s (from 1.8s)
[/li][/ul]

Hochfir SMG

[ul]
[li]Reduced initial bullet spread by ~10%
[/li][li]Reduced reload time to 1.8s (from 1.9s)
[/li][/ul]

Timik-47 AR

[ul]
[li]Reduced spread and recoil by ~5%
[/li][li]Increased effective range to 29m (from 28m)
[/li][/ul]

Ahnuld-12 Shotgun

[ul]
[li]Increased rate of fire to 95RPM (from 86)
[/li][li]Reduced total reload time by 0.2s
[/li][/ul]

Other Changes

Nader

[ul]
[li]Martyrdom cooldown is now visible when incapacitated
[/li][/ul]

Redeye

[ul]
[li]Redeye’s IR goggles may now be toggled while using a mounted gun
[/li][li]Friendly Smoke no longer blocks Defibrillator revives
[/li][/ul]

Proxy

[ul]
[li]Fixed bug where Proximity Mines were noticeably floating
[/li][/ul]

General Gameplay

[ul]
[li]Weapon inspection is now visible when spectating another player in first-person
[/li][li]Fixed bug where Friendly Fire settings were sometimes enabled for Competitive Matches
[/li][li]Fixed bug where the number of placement matches required for a Competitive Ranking were not correctly displayed
[/li][li]Fixed bug where players could become stuck inside elevators
[/li][li]Fixed bug where Turrets could be placed inside Generators
[/li][li]Fixed bug where iron sighting after firing will fire again
[/li][/ul]

Animation

[ul]
[li]Improved the SMG9 third-person reload
[/li][li]Fixed bug with the Simeon .357 iron sight being off-centre
[/li][/ul]

User Interface

[ul]
[li]Account Levels are no longer visible in Competitive Matches, as teams are sorted by Competitive Rank
[/li][li]All ammo sources will now show up on the HUD when low on ammo
[/li][li]Accepting an invite to a Private Match now takes players directly to the lobby
[/li][li]Fixed bug where the voting UI position would change
[/li][li]Fixed bug where only the creator of a Private Match could see the state of the Friendly Fire option
[/li][/ul]

Audio

[ul]
[li]Completely reworked the weapon fire audio for the Caulden Pistol
[/li][li]Mercs will now automatically thank medics that revive them
[/li][li]Bullet-by audio has been enabled - enemy bullets are now audible when speeding close to the camera
[/li][li]Updated audio when unlocking items in the Menu
[/li][/ul]


(Mustang) #2

Keep up the good work.

Although I’d like to see some of the longstanding bugs that keep being reported being given a higher priority, some of these bug fixes feel like changelog padding rather than really tackling the stuff players care more about.


(spookify) #3

Great updated cant wait to test!

Any chance that Voting: Yes or No can be changed to F4 or F6?

I think it is “1” right now but with how much I hit 1 to switch to my knife I basically will always vote 1 automatically. If its not “1” then I have no idea how to vote yes or no… That should be made more clear…

Some very good balance changes! Cant wait to try the Hochfir! Something I never say about the Blishlok :tongue:

Can we get more info on Ranked MM to possible push more people to try it?

Really like the team shuffle! Take that stackers!!

Really like the speed up in time!

New Lobby! Cool!

Open Cases In game?
Buy mercs In game?
Stats?
Leader boards?

  • Something to prevent people from leaving after a map or round.

(BioSnark) #4

looking forward to lobby changes, and if there’ll be time to switch mercs outside of ranked and private before lock, now.


(light_sh4v0r) #5

Sounds good, some nice QOL improvements too.
Some big things would be nice but we can’t have that every patch :slight_smile:


(Szakalot) #6

Amazing changes.

Changes to casual game lobbies make me cry stroggified tears.:goliathspin:


(DarkangelUK) #7

hmm not so keen on having to wait till right before the match begins before I know which side I’m on.


(Domipheus) #8

How can you choose mercs without knowing which side you are playing, and the makeup of the rest of your team?


(potty200) #9

Need solo queue asap. Way too many over powered teams playing match making and ruining the fun for new players :frowning:


(Smooth) #10

We felt that this behaviour is something that is generally more relevant to competitive play and that a lot of casual players will simply play their favourite Mercs, regardless of team-composition.

Yes it’s a loss for some people but we believe the gain of having more balanced, less-stacked public matches is well worth the cost.


(Domipheus) #11

[QUOTE=Smooth;538530]We felt that this behaviour is something that is generally more relevant to competitive play and that a lot of casual players will simply play their favourite Mercs, regardless of team-composition.

Yes it’s a loss for some people but we believe the gain of having more balanced, less-stacked public matches is well worth the cost.[/QUOTE]

Think it’s a loss for everyone who actually enjoys ad-hoc play. Another reason why rentals of public servers are now needed.


(Szakalot) #12

I agree with SD here, I’d much rather have balanced games than be able to pick specific 3 mercs for offense/defense. Typically, you’ll find most players playing a single merc, not even on a specific map, but through multiple maps in succession.

I also think that hardly anybody adjusts their merc composition based on what other players in the team have picked.


(Domipheus) #13

[QUOTE=Szakalot;538538]I agree with SD here, I’d much rather have balanced games than be able to pick specific 3 mercs for offense/defense. Typically, you’ll find most players playing a single merc, not even on a specific map, but through multiple maps in succession.

I also think that hardly anybody adjusts their merc composition based on what other players in the team have picked.[/QUOTE]

You’ve never played a pub game of chapel where there are 8 skyhammers, 8 vassillis, and 0 medics in the rotation? :wink: If so, I salute you!

As an example, in OBJ mode on underground, i’ll always pick vasilli if i’m attacker, but on defence I may pick sawbones instead. I do think a great deal of folk do choose depending on situation, and I think it’s not playing to the strengths of the merc loadout system if that’s now taken away.

In terms of balancing, autobalance could be enabled during gameplay - this doesnt solve the issue if for whatever reason a stack does occur, and a fullhold on terminal or some such happens (possibly due to no medics in rotation? huhuhu), and then folk start leaving, meaning a great 8v5 experience or whatever. Additionally, shuffling by skill should maybe be adjusted to work better and pass easier if voted for.


(Exedore) #14

We share the concerns, but we’ll see what happens and iterate further based on what happens. We have more comprehensive solutions planned, but as ever those are considerably further out and we wanted to try to improve the situation sooner.


(spookify) #15

Would you not then have one slot for whomever in the above example? Currently you do have 3 mercs and a pretty good shot at picking one that will work on both attacking and defending.

I can see this being a much bigger problem in OBJ mode servers (which are giant TDMS) then SW servers. This change will be perfect for SW servers! Yesterday I played in SW Pub where classmates were stacking the teams. Going Spec and basically just sitting there waiting for someone to leave on the other team or someone to join his previous team. My pub team got smoked and it wasnt balanced at all. This shuffle is a great thing for Pubs especially SW.

This shuffle should also let SD the glaring fact that some mercs just arent balance for both offensive and defense. That is why I proposed in a post that we have a rating system along with the speed, support and assault chart that ranks each merc with their current offence and defensive powers.


(Domipheus) #16

[QUOTE=spookify;538544]Would you not then have one slot for whomever in the above example? Currently you do have 3 mercs and a pretty good shot at picking one that will work on both attacking and defending.

I can see this being a much bigger problem in OBJ mode servers (which are giant TDMS) then SW servers. This change will be perfect for SW servers! Yesterday I played in SW Pub where classmates were stacking the teams. Going Spec and basically just sitting there waiting for someone to leave on the other team or someone to join his previous team. My pub team got smoked and it wasnt balanced at all. This shuffle is a great thing for Pubs especially SW.

This shuffle should also let SD the glaring fact that some mercs just arent balance for both offensive and defense. That is why I proposed in a post that we have a rating system along with the speed, support and assault chart that ranks each merc with their current offence and defensive powers.[/QUOTE]

Agreed, this is fine for SW


(Sagan_on_Roids) #17

[QUOTE=Smooth;538530]We felt that this behaviour is something that is generally more relevant to competitive play and that a lot of casual players will simply play their favourite Mercs, regardless of team-composition.

Yes it’s a loss for some people but we believe the gain of having more balanced, less-stacked public matches is well worth the cost.[/QUOTE]

It’s worth noting that this is only an issue on Objective mode servers. It won’t matter on Stopwatch since you have to play both sides anyway.


(shibbyuk) #18

[QUOTE=shoe.;538483]
All ammo sources will now show up on the HUD when low on ammo[/QUOTE]

Nice!!

Also, less time between matches has to be a good thing.


(spookify) #19

[QUOTE=shibbyuk;538556]Nice!!
Also, less time between matches has to be a good thing.[/QUOTE]

When I first read that I thought it said mini map for some reason…

So we now have more icons appearing on the hud? I have circles and squares all over the place… This is a night function but can you please scale the icons better according to distance?

I had an enemy repair the EV on bridge and hope in the gun while I was mid distance away in the office and I could not see the person in the turret because of a giant yellow circle of him!


(tangoliber) #20

Big changes on the match balancing side of things. I think the community will like it.
Some will complain about the inability to choose a merc based on side. I know that I typically change my medic depending on whether I am on offense or defense.

Thank you for more bullet spread decreases!!!