November Fine Tuning Update v52215 - 12/11/2015


(Chris Mullins) #1

While the Containment War Event rages on until the end of the month, we’re digging in for another round of tweaks and fixes in this month’s Fine Tuning Update. Put your bullet-point vest on and enjoy!

Dome Updates

With our brand new double-domed Objective map now in the wild, we’ve been monitoring the firefights and have made some adjustments. The biggest of these is to reduce defender bias on the first Objective by improving Jackal’s tactical options.

Red Courtyard Generator

To make it easier for Jackal to destroy the generator, the building above it has been removed to give Mercs with air support abilities a better chance to destroy it. The railings in front of the generator have also been collapsed, to allow for cleaner combat between Jackal’s Mercs near the generator and CDA’s on the lower ground.

Brewery Side MG

The MG nest in front of the brewery area has been raised onto a platform, giving Jackal a greater coverage of the CDA’s entrances to the Solar Station. When Jackal have pushed into the solar station, they now have a stronger tactical option for locking down the area and allowing their teammates to deliver the objective.

Other changes include:

[ul]
[li]Made trick jump on ‘Red Corner’ easier to perform, adding an entrance to the adjacent building immediately after the jump, and widening the exit
[/li][li]Moved crates on ‘Red Corner’ to provide more room in the corridor leading to the generator
[/li][li]Replaced the walljump above the ‘Red Courtyard’ generator with double wall jump and removed excess panels
[/li][li]Flipped the staircase leading up to the high platform overlooking the solar station
[/li][li]Altered the trick jump across the brewery allowing for less complex jumps from the generator’s side, and raised the generator slightly
[/li][li]Added broken wall to offer better spawn protection leading out of the forward route from Jackal’s initial spawn
[/li][li]Made pipe and van trick jumps up to the rooftop between the Pylons more forgiving, making it easier to move between them
[/li][/ul]

You can also check out the changes on Imgur and also watch the VoD from our Dev livestream where massE explains all of the updates (starts at 11m40s).

Balance Changes

General Gameplay

[ul]
[li]Added forgiveness window to Burst-Fire rifles, allowing players to press fire up to 133ms early and still fire the next burst at the correct time
[/li][LIST]
[li]This will make the Burst-Fire rifles feel a lot more consistent, and make attaining maximum fire rate considerably easier
[/li][/ul]
[li]Increased existing forgiveness window with semi-automatic weapons, allowing players to press fire up to 133ms early and still fire the next round (from 100ms)
[/li][li]Reduced explosive push amounts by up to 20%
[/li][ul]
[li]This brings explosive push amounts back to pre-Containment War update levels
[/li][/ul]
[li]Increased XP for giving Ammo to 15xp per magazine supplied (from 10xp)
[/li][/LIST]

Nader

[ul]
[li]Increased Grenade Launcher grenade explosive radius by ~7%
[/li][/ul]

Phoenix

[ul]
[li]Switching weapon with a charged Healing Pulse will now trigger the Healing Pulse
[/li][/ul]

Redeye

[ul]
[li]Increased Smoke Grenade radius by ~13%
[/li][li]Increased Smoke Grenade duration to 12s (from 10s)
[/li][li]Increased amount of explosive damage it takes to disperse a Smoke Grenade to 225 (from 200)
[/li][li]Reduced Smoke Grenade cooldown to 25s (from 30s)
[/li][li]Increased maximum IR Goggle active duration to 13s (from 9s)
[/li][li]Increased IR Goggle Spotted duration to 4s from 3s
[/li][li]Increased XP for Spotting players to 20xp (from 10xp)
[/li][li]Increased XP for a Spotted Assist to 70xp (from 50xp)
[/li][li]Increased XP for throwing a Smoke Grenade to 30xp (from 15xp)
[/li][li]Fixed bug where Enemy Health could sometimes be seen through Smoke
[/li][li]Fixed bug where Smoke would sometimes not cover the screen when standing inside it
[/li][/ul]

Stoker

[ul]
[li]Cancelling a Molotov throw now only drains 10% cooldown (from 25%)
[/li][/ul]

Vassili

[ul]
[li]Increased XP for Spotting players to 20xp (from 10xp)
[/li][li]Increased XP for a Spotted Assist to 70xp (from 50xp)
[/li][li]Increased XP for throwing a Heartbeat Sensor to 20xp (from 15xp)
[/li][/ul]

Blishlok SMG

[ul]
[li]Reduced the amount of kick in the sighted firing animation
[/li][/ul]

Dreiss AR

[ul]
[li]Reduced maximum bullet spread by ~10%
[/li][/ul]

Hochfir SMG

[ul]
[li]Reduced maximum spread by ~2.5%
[/li][li]Reduced reload time to 1.7s (from 1.8s)
[/li][li]Increased effective range to 18m (from 17m)
[/li][/ul]

Hollunds 880

[ul]
[li]Increased rate of fire to 95RPM (from 90)
[/li][/ul]

Timik-47

[ul]
[li]Reduced maximum spread by ~4%
[/li][li]Reduced horizontal recoil by ~7%
[/li][/ul]

Other Changes

General

[ul]
[li]First time players with computers that have less than 512MB Video Ram will now have their default resolution set to 800x600
[/li][/ul]

User Interface

[ul]
[li]Added sorting options to Merc and Weapon Stats pages
[/li][li]The Quick Join menu now includes Server Name, Game Mode and Map Name in ‘Friends Playing Now’
[/li][li]Dirty Bomb now populates the Steam ‘recently played with’ user list
[/li][li]Updated the Lobby when joining a match in progress to include the same countdowns as match start
[/li][li]Added the Server Name to the Lobby
[/li][li]Map Vote now selects a map randomly when votes are tied, rather than the first map in the list
[/li][li]The 8:5 aspect ratio option has been renamed to 16:10
[/li][li]Moved the VOIP audio slider and toggle to the Audio Menu
[/li][li]Updated the Merc Selection visibility rules on the Scoreboard to show previously selected enemy Mercs in all game modes
[/li][/ul]

Audio

[ul]
[li]Updated weapon reload audio to correctly sync with the Drilled (faster reload) Augment
[/li][li]Replaced some of the more nonchalant Commander VO lines during match review for extra seriousness
[/li][li]Polish pass on burst rifles
[/li][/ul]

Maps

[ul]
[li]Further collision, bug fix and optimization passes on Dome, Overground & Market
[/li][/ul]

Notable Bug Fixes

[ul]
[li]Fixed bug that created inconsistencies with the forgiveness window for rapidly firing semi-automatic weapons
[/li][li]Fixed bug where bomb planting audio was missing for nearby players
[/li][li]Fixed bug where the progress bar on Voting UI would be wrong if someone on your team was dead
[/li][li]Fixed bug where clicking audio could rapidly loop at the end of the game
[/li][li]Fixed bug where the wrong ‘Next Map’ would be shown when joining a match in progress
[/li][li]Fixed bug with awkward player collision around Ammo Stations
[/li][li]Fixed bug where pressing ‘F’ could sometimes drop the Bomb in Execution
[/li][li]Fixed bug where players running a different game version could join the same Party
[/li][li]Fixed bug on Bridge where glass could appear unbroken when it should be broken
[/li][li]Fixed bug where Molotov Grenades could hurt incapacitated friendly players
[/li][li]Fixed bug where Ammo Stations sometimes didn’t emit ammo-giving sounds
[/li][li]Fixed bug where Health Pack audio didn’t play on direct hits
[/li][li]Fixed bug where Sound Effects volume would be set to zero when resetting to default
[/li][li]Fixed bug where Sticky Bomb throw time was 66ms longer than intended
[/li][li]Fixed bug where Kira’s targeting laser appeared red to friendlies
[/li][li]Fixed bug where players under level 7 could enter Competitive Matchmaking via a Party
[/li][li]Fixed bug where Molotov Grenades would instantly destroy any nearby Healing Stations if they touched the healing radius rather than the station itself
[/li][li]Fixed bug where the very center of a Molotov Grenade would not deal any damage
[/li][li]Fixed bug where Ammo Caches could provide greater than maximum ammo
[/li][li]Fixed bug where IR Goggles could Spot players through dynamic objects such as destructible doors
[/li][li]Disabled numerous exploitable commands in the console
[/li][/ul]


(potty200) #2

Any changes coming to sparks soon?


(Mustang) #3

Those balance changes are beautiful!!!

The only one I don’t like is for Phoenix I’d rather weapons switching on healing pulse drained some cooldown instead of firing the ability, firing it and getting a full cooldown on weapon switch is for all intense and purposes no different to not firing it and getting a full cooldown on weapon switch, because the intent of weapon switching rather than the player manually firing it before weapon switching is that the situation no longer called for a healing pulse, so you want to save it for when it’ll actually be needed, but instead you’re still stuck with a full cooldown the next time you want to use it.

On the Dome changes they look fine for the most part, I hope “make the jumps a bit easier” doesn’t mean “make it so no-one ever fails them”, I’m also slightly dubious whether the changes will be enough to sway the balance back towards attackers though, but I shall wait until playing it for further feedback, of course I’m also sad that both the locations of the second objective aren’t mandatory yet; all secondary objectives should be optional, all primary objectives should be mandatory, end of story.

This has me a little worried and I think requires further explanation.

I also think in the spirit of honesty and openness it would be nice to actually say which commands you’re referring to, of course it would also satisfy my morbid curiosity.


(potty200) #4

Also, did you ever locate that EV bug where some people had it completely invisible?


(Szakalot) #5

[QUOTE=Mustang;541190]Those balance changes are beautiful!!!

The only one I don’t like is for Phoenix I’d rather weapons switching on healing pulse drained some cooldown instead of firing the ability, firing it and getting a full cooldown on weapon switch is for all intense and purposes no different to not firing it and getting a full cooldown on weapon switch, because the intent of weapon switching rather than the player manually firing it before weapon switching is that the situation no longer called for a healing pulse, so you want to save it for when it’ll actually be needed, but instead you’re still stuck with a full cooldown the next time you want to use it.[/quote]

well explained! I found this sentiment everywhere I talked Phoenix.


(Smooth) #6

Yep, that’s what we intend to do for Phoenix eventually (switching away cancels and returns some of the cooldown) but although we have that for Frag Grenades, it’s actually quite a bit of work for the Phoenix ability due to the variable nature of the charge amount.

The new change is better than what we had before though, where the cooldown is lost completely and there was no heal at all.


(shibbyuk) #7

[QUOTE=shoe.;541155]
[li]Fixed bug on Bridge where glass could appear unbroken when it should be broken[/li][/QUOTE]

Yes!! The issue with the delivered objectives being invisible always happens at the same time, so is that fixed too?


(PixelTwitch) #8

looks like no fixes to the objective based bugs so looks like DBnation is going to be on pause till at least the next update :frowning:


(FireWorks) #9

XP seems still below anything meaningful.
From what I heard on the dev stream about fire support as incentive to feed ammo to teammates in firefights… That might work for Arty and Sky, but how are Kira and Stoker supposed to do this in a comparable manner? Besides that shooting is in general the best option before wasting precious time and life of the teammates run out…

Can we please have values for the grenades? Inner/outer damage and distance? Linear scaling?

Overall nice to see things getting sorted steadily, even we all would have love things faster :slight_smile:

EDIT:
I was wondering that there was no XP tweak for execution. The general amount of XP you can do is way beyond any expected value in Objective/SW. There is a real lack of multikill and other badge XP due to the constant resets each round. No way for all the lv3 badges etc.
Guess it will be a discussion for the future :slight_smile:


(poiuasd) #10

Am I missing something here? These balance changes look anything but awesome, doesn’t seem like they’ll make any difference in practise apart from the bug fixes to burst rifles and stickies.


(FireWorks) #11

Did the bug with proxy and stoker get fixed? Molotov does trigger friendly mines.

I read similar things in the patchnotes but nothing specific about the proxy mines.

Also, molly and enemy healing station is fixed. Does this also apply to ammo stations? They seemed to suffer the same fate.


(Kl3ppy) #12

Still feels like a hurricane when getting hit by hochfir or the other high rpm gun.
Also hearing the help up sounds when spawing, but no help up is close
Wrong player count in Execution shown.

Found this bugs in roughly 15mins play. Was there a QA before the release? I mean it is bad when so many bugs are introduced with every update …


(titan) #13

nice patch sd good job

bishlok feels rly nice although I was already a fan tbh
dreiss feels fun to use for once, although still a bit weak I think, with a red dot though omg this gun is gonna be legit, the fire rate is so deliciously fast now
br-16 and stark finally feel consistent and fun with the rof bug fixes
timik is fast becoming the best gun in the game and again I was already a fan before this patch
redeye buffs are rly legit too… just a good balance patch!

Only played 1 round on dome but both teams got past 1st obj so I guess thats an improvement although need to play a lot more…


(DarkangelUK) #14

Will probably get a better feel for it tomorrow night when ive had a few games and a few drinks, but the shooting just felt… off. I wasn’t connecting nearly as much as usual, losing easy one on one’s and the hit beeps were few and far between… and this was with the Hochfir that was meant to have had a buff.


(FireWorks) #15

On dome, the new MG “staircase” on brewery should allow for a jump over the wall or the wall should be redesigned. Currently the invisible jump protection is weird…

Their is also a crate in the air needing its collision checked, above said wall when jumping from the tweaked generator passage. Id love to jump from that passage over the closed wall :smiley:


(ragnak) #16

Didnt play a lot since the patch but:

Dreiss and burst rifles feels a lot better (i do not rate power here, mind you).

Redeye buffs stronk (getting quite insane with pdp).

Hit detection seemed to work the best in months (i hope it stays this way)

There wasnt tons of bugs everywhere (at least thats how it felt for me).

Overall very decent patch, that nader buff was kinda strange but other then that all seems to fine, to my suprise.


(Protekt1) #17

Stoker

Cancelling a Molotov throw now only drains 10% cooldown (from 25%)

Thank god. What was it like 10 second cooldown before if you cancelled? That was absurd.


(mccrorie) #18

What is the bright red / black flickering I get now during firefights? This kind of thing can induce seizures.


(DarkangelUK) #19

I don’t get that, sounds like a user specific issue


(spookify) #20

These Balance Changes are Amazing!!!

Nice work on also crushing those bugs!!

Cant wait to try to Semi-Auto and Burst Fire Guns again!!