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Here is a snippet of what's in store for Patch 332, which is coming soon! This changelog contains the Balance Patch Notes, there is much more in the full changelog which will be released when the build goes live.
GENERAL
● The health and armor status (hp bar) has been removed from enemy players in combat (We recommend enabling damage numbers)
● Re-drop block times for commanders placing cysts and resource towers is now 1 second (down from 5-7 seconds)
● Fixed cysts sometimes dying when placed (From Katzenfleisch)
● Fixed commanders forced to repress the grid key for dual action items (From Katzenfleisch)
● Fixed scan not having a visual range displayed (From Katzenfleisch)
● Fixed structures being detected but not visible if scanned (From Katzenfleisch)
LIFEFORMS
SKULK
● Model size decreased by 10% (90% original size)
● Bite cone changed to 0.8 wide by 1.2 tall (from 1.2×1.2)
● Skulk sneak speed changed to 4.0 (from 4.785)
● Skulks now only receive a speed boost from a consecutive jump.
GORGE
Heal Spray
● Now also adds maturity to alien structures and speeds up player evolutions while they are embryos.
Web
Web
● placement ghosts will now stay visible and turn red if you stretch them past their limit instead of despawning
● Webs are now only placeable on the ground from one endpoint (to fix “duct tape” floor strip webs)
● Gorges can finish placing webs from much further away. Starting placement range is unchanged.
● Web Snare now reduces movement speed by 66% and tapers off gradually over 5 seconds (up from 2.5 seconds)
● Webs now turn invisible, only fading into view at 5 meters or closer, with a distortion effect at longer range
● No longer parasites marines
● No longer appears in the kill-feed
● Now have a “hardening” mechanic: Webs will gain “charges”, which will allow them to web enemies multiple times.
—○ When charges run out, the web will die.
—○ Each charge gives the web 10 hp.
—○ Webs start with 1 cahrge.
—○ Max 3 charges.
Babblers
● No longer gains biomass HP scaling (previously 1.5 hp per biomass)
LERK
Spike
● Projectile size increased to 60mm (up from 45mm)
● Now penetrates soft targets (MACs, Drifters, Hydras) (From Twiliteblue)
● Now deals double damage to Mines (Damage: 5 -> 10)
FADE
Blink (From Golden)
● Increased friction when moving faster than base blink speed
—○ Will lose velocity more quickly when moving faster than 16.25
—○ Rate at which you lose velocity is reduced when using celerity
Metabolize
● Advanced Metabolize now heals effective HP (treats armor as 2 hitpoints)
Stab
● Damage decreased to 120 (from 160)
● Damage type changed to structural (2x to structures)
● Fades can now blink, jump and move freely while performing stab.
GENERAL
UPGRADES
Vampirism
● Primary attacks now generate an HP shield instead of healing.
● The shield begins decaying after 0.5 seconds of your last hit and will taper off over the next 4.5 seconds.
● The maximum shield amount is 1.5 times the value of the charge of a single hit with 3 shells.
● The shield does stack with mucous and babblers
● Skulks only charge 14% health per bite (decreased from 20%)
● Vampirism no longer has any effect when used against Exosuits
COMMANDER
Drifter Abilities
● All abilities have now a cool down of 12 seconds (instead of only 1 second for mucous and hallucinations)
Ink Cloud
● Decreased cooldown to 15 seconds (from 16)
SOFT CAPS
Maturity and Gestation
● Implemented a softcap for maturity and gestation (evolving rate)
—○ Both maturity and gestation have a 1.5x threshold, and a 0.25 capped efficiency. This means that no softcap will be applied for 1.5x of the added amount’s rate, but leftovers will be subjected to a -75% penalty.
Healing
● The Healing softcap now correctly clamps overhealing.
—○ If an Alien structure or player is healed by more than 14%/sec of their total effective hit points any additional healing is reduced by 66% .
MISC
● Maturity information is now visible in the nameplate for alien structures
● Crag, Shade, and Shift supply cost changed to 20 (down from 25)
● Destroying an HMG with Bile Bomb now awards score points
● Onos taunt now uses the charge sound (instead of the stomp sound)
Comments:
The removal of health bars is quite the boon to aliens, so to accomodate that we’ve made some changes to the Fade & Skulk movement to accommodate that. The skulk has also been shrunk slightly while having it’s bite cone narrowed. This is to help align the skill curve of the Skulk with that of the basic marine… be mindful of where you are biting! Aside from these, there are some other notable items: The gorge has gotten a few new tricks as Webs have received a significant rework to orient their play style more toward their original intended purpose of “trapping” and significantly slowing careless marines. Vampirism has received a major rework which maintains it’s combat prowess but tones down the sustain it provided after combat.
WEAPONS
● Marine dropped weapon decay timer is now 16 seconds (down from 25)
SHOTGUN
● Reverted to build 326-behavior
—○ 17 pellets, each deal 10 damage
—○ Divided into 4 rings of 4 pellets each, +1 pellet in the middle
—○ Pellet sizes are all 16mm
—○ No Damage Falloff
HEAVY MACHINE GUN
● Reload time is now 3.5 seconds (from 5 seconds)
● Decreased drum ammo size to 100 (from 125)
● Now awards 5 score points when destroyed by bilebomb
FLAMETHROWER
● Removed energy damage (1 energy per hit)
MINES
● Damage changed to 130 (from 150)
● Mines can now be properly killed during their arming period when first deployed. In this case, they do not explode or deal damage.
● Marines now keep unused mines when they die and receive them back when they respawn (like hand grenades).
● HP changed to 30 health and 9 armor (from 40 health and 5 armor). Tip: With crush it takes only 4 parasites (instead of 5) to destroy a mine
● Lerk spikes now deal double damage to mines (Damage: 5 -> 10)
● Mines now award 5 score points when killed by an alien
● Mines now display on the minimap for all marines, and for aliens when damaged or parasited
● Weight reduced to 0 (from 0.1)
HAND GRENADES
● Removed lengthy deploy animation so grenades are now thrown much faster. (quickthrow and regular throw)
● Pulse grenade
—○ “Electrified” effect now also nullifies and prevents targets from benefiting from drifter Enzyme and Mucous abilities
● Decreased weight to 0 (from 0.1)
EXOSUIT
GENERAL
● Reduced opacity of “scanlines” UI texture to be less obstructive (25% of original value)
● Exos are now free to fire their weapons while thrusters are being used
● Thrusters can now be toggled on and off freely without waiting for maximum charge between use.
—○ Thruster fuel now has a 0.75 second cooldown before recharging after last use
● Exosuits now “self-repair” when out of combat at a rate of 8 armor/second
● Alien Vampirism no longer has any effect when used against exos
MINIGUN
● Damage type is now “heavy” (double damage to armor)
● Damage changed to 6 (down from 10)
● Overheat animation sped up such that the time out of combat now matches up exactly with the heat meter for that weapon (before, the overheat animation would finish well-after the heat meter was empty)
POWERNODES
● Powernode Blueprints have been removed
● All Powernodes now start socketed but unbuilt. The Powernodes in the Marine Base start built and Alien Hive start destroyed upon round start
● Powernodes that have no health are not highlighted for either team and can’t be damaged
● Powernodes that haven’t been built yet do not affect the location’s light state
● The construction progress of a Powernode is synchronized with their hit points. This means when an enemy damages an unbuilt Powernode by 1% hp it also looses 1% construction progress
● Marines no longer receive automated orders to construct a Powernode unless there is a structure or blueprint inside the given location that requires power
MISC
● Fixed cluster grenade burn damage numbers being displayed to the target
Comments:
It wouldn’t be a balance patch if the Shotgun didn’t receive some tweaks! This time we’ve reverted it to its original pre-shotgun-pocalypse state. The HeavyMachineGun has also received a slight rework. We’ve acknowledged mines can be a bit of an issue lately, so they’ve received several adjustments to bring them back in line while still keeping them useful. Exosuits have also received a slew of new changes* and can now auto-repair themselves when out of combat (*The Railgun rework from the beta still requires more polish, and did not make it into this patch). One of the most significant changes in this patch can be seen in the powernode rework! These changes are primarily visual in nature but greatly improves the clarity of the health state, and the usability with the removal of powernode blueprints.