Fortis hits the core roster with a fresh set of components, Valor and Deadeye get some big changes, there’s a brand new clan system to unlock more scans with friends, prototype map Expanse gets updates and there’s another prototype map to try in customs
⚙ General
Clans
We’ve added a new clan system that will hopefully serve as the foundation for more ways to play together that we have in the works for the future. This first version gives you a way to coordinate your play via a linked chat between the clan in-game and a linked Discord server. It also adds shared rewards you can work towards with your clan. We hope to include more clan vs clan systems in the future.
When you make a clan, you link it to a Discord channel so players outside of game can chat with players in-game and viceversa
Players in a clan can unlock weekly territory scans together based on their cumulative XP gains
Clans support up to 20 players
Note: The thinking here is that we’re anchoring around having a core set of players you interact with regularly and enough flexibility to have a full team of 8 together at least one “game night” a week. For top level competitive play with dedicated and consistent rosters, this might seem like an unnecessarily large number. For players in 50+ large gaming organizations, this number might seem overly restrictive. 20 isn’t a magic number, and we’ll be evaluating how effective it is at facilitating the experiences we’re currently aiming for (ranked teams, shared cooperation towards weekly territory scans) and ones we have planned for the future.
New Tank: Fortis graduates from Alpha Program
Fortis is now out of the Alpha Program and is available for unlock in the core roster
With Fortis on the core roster, it brings with it three new components - more information on those below
If you already leveled Fortis, you keep all your levels, all your component unlocks, all your ammo unlocks, and all your loadouts
You also automatically gain the new components that would have been unlocked at the levels you’ve already reached
As a note to set future expectations:
Not all new tanks will have three brand new components. Expect something closer to 1 or maybe 2 new components, very rarely 3. There’s a number of considerations here and no fixed rule. We want to increase the overall number of build options as we expand the roster but we also want to avoid bloat.
The XP requirement and SLVR Cost to unlock Fortis are higher than the initial set of tanks (300k XP and SLVR). Our overall goal is to have vertical progression (tank leveling) stay fast and horizontal progression (accumulating more options like new tanks, components, ammo types, etc…) to be where most of the progression time is spent instead.
Also, as a general reminder, tank unlocking is sped up by territory scan drops (career XP boosters and SLVR), Echo Scans drops (SLVR), and tanks get their SLVR price discounted as you progress on them.
Components
Three new components have been added and can be unlocked on Fortis:
Energy Vent: Using your last energy charge increases Max Speed and Hull Traverse Speed by 3.5%. This effect can stack up to 5 times.
Sidescrape Gear: Increases Hull Traverse Speed by 35% while not throttling
Hull Bellows: Your next ram after bouncing or being hit by a shot heals you for 75
Relentless Adapter
Effect increased to 60 from 40
The effect now triggers on your module getting hit rather than module repair
There is now an internal cap of 15 on how many times this effect can stack
Drift Sparker
Now works for both treaded and hover vehicles
Now also increases your acceleration for the buff duration
The drift duration required to activate is reduced to 0.75s, from 2s
Removed the Hull Traverse Speed increase passive effect
UI
Ping duration increased to 6 seconds from 3 seconds
There is now a Ranked tab section on the main menu where you can access the leaderboard and your ranked standing
The leaderboard now shows each players' ranked medal
There is now a brief loading screen between finding a match and the tank selection lobby to make sure all players connect to the match. If any player fails to connect, the match is aborted and the other players are put back into the matchmaking queue.
The helper descriptions for many tech nodes on tech trees have been updated or added to explain what some game concepts are
Added helper descriptions below many components.
The auto-lock UI should now be more visible as it will scale with distance from the enemy
The sniper mode UI has been updated and includes a color element that emphasizes when you are spotted
Overhead health bars now indicate squad members
Added new name filtering system where names are more aggressively filtered than before. Your own name will not be filtered for your local client, and this feature can be turned off in Settings->Account->Mature Language filter.
Ammunition
Siphon Shells reworked:
Heals for 15 per shot. This effect is tripled when you are below half health.
Progression
Echo Scans have been adjusted:
They no longer grant Salutes, Pilot Boosters, or Career XP Boosters
SLVR drop rewards have been increased by ~10x
The odds of finding Gold or cosmetics in an Echo Scan have been substantially increased (but are still rare)
Echo Scans now require 500k XP to reach
Note: The goal here is to make Echo Scans rarer but more potent.
Audio
Tanks in the core set (not Alpha Program) have new voice acting
Note: Ark’s new voice acting unfortunately didn’t hit the mark on the first go, so it will be without voice lines until we can re-record
Pinging an ally now plays a “Thank you” voice line
Note: we know the previous “I’ll help you” line had good uses, particularly for Valor to signal an incoming heal, and we’ll be adding it back again in the future
Settings
Added AMD FSR 4 as a super-sampling option
Allowed VSync to remain enabled when using DLSS
Cosmetics
We’ve added some new cosmetics that can be found in territory and echo scans
Skins
Alecto: Redline
Phantom: Dark Matter
Ikarus: Game Over
Ark: Sakura
Helio: Chromatic
Charms
Valor Charm
Ikarus Charm
Frag
Premium Ammo
Copy That
Universal Fix
Safety Third
Grease Monkey
Shellington
Captain Whiskers
Pair o’ Dice
Forbidden Buoy
Misc
Added gamepad support for the Battle Details / post-game scoreboard screen, including focusable player sections and report-player context actions
Added the ability to report players through right clicking their name on the match history screen
We now sign our executables which will reduce Windows reporting the game as being unsigned
🗺️ Maps
Wind Valley
The hill at C8 now has fewer bushes and the path up to it is slightly more exposed to vision from the center of the map
Added a rock formation at E6 to make the center of the city more protected from the sniper hill at C8
Rounded out the top of the cliff at H6 to make it more exposed when enterprising goats make their way up there
Ravine
Elevated the bush thicket at G8 to give south side better overwatch on the central energy zone
Added strategically critical birds on one of the north side bushes of the energy zone bush thicket
Added some bushes around G5
Rocks have been added to block off the sniping perch at J9
Divide
Adjusted the position of the south side ammo zone so it is less exposed to cross map shots at the start of the game
Removed the center energy zone
Prototype: Expanse
The birds that sit on bushes now react properly when startled
There are now more birds
The hill area at the foot of the eastern structure is now blocked off
Added more rock cover around the base capture zones
Adjusted bush positions around the middle tunnel path so there’s less sniper cover
NEW Prototype: Dunes
This is a new prototype map we’re looking for feedback on, give it a shot in custom games and let us know what you think
🛞 Vehicles
General
All vehicles have had some changes to their driving physics. These should:
Remove some of the “bounce” from vehicles when driving on uneven terrain
Give vehicles more feeling of weight when traversing uneven terrain
Make vehicles slightly more responsive to controls at higher speeds
Alecto
The logic for the blink ability has been refined so there should be less cases of getting caught on small bits of terrain
Arbalest
Siege Mode shots no longer generate energy.
Design Note: This was a bug that was letting Arbalests generate more energy than intended and is now fixed
Ark
Shell Penetration reduced to 90 from 100
Atlas
Removed bonus damage module spot from the sides of turret (it still remains on the back of the turret)
Deadeye
The ability has undergone some functional changes:
The turret will now begin elevating the instant the ability is activated, rather than after a windup
However, the turret will now elevate over the course of 4s, rather than near-instantly
Lowering takes the same time as previously
The vehicle is now able to fire while elevating and lowering the turret
You can recast the ability (default F) to begin lowering the turret at any point during the elevation. Starting a reload will also begin lowering the turret as it did previously.
Alongside this, the keystones have both been replaced. They are now:
Quick Elevation: Elevate raises the turret 50% faster
Bold Elevation: Increases shell damage of shots made at the apex of turret elevation by 25
Design Note: The goal of these changes is to give the Deadeye ability more versatility, and give players slightly more control over how they deploy the turret. While the main use of the ability (deal damage from unexpected locations and from over cover) remains the same, you can now use the ability to peek just over cover to fire shells more safely, or juke out shots by lowering the turret right at the perfect moment doing your best Alecto impression.
Fortis
Fortis has graduated from the Alpha Program and is now on the core roster
Mine fuse time lowered to 2s from 3.5s
Lower front plate thickness increased to 32mm, from 30mm
Upper glacis plate thickness increased to 55mm, from 54mm
Side armor and inner track thickness increased to 41mm, from 40mm
New Native Components (more info above):
Energy Vent
Sidescrape Gear
Hull Bellows
Shell Swap Speed tech node changed to Max Speed
Ikarus
During the thrust phase of the ability, the vehicle will gain less altitude when thrusting straight up (or nearly so)
During the glide phase of the ability, the vehicle will lose more energy when moving straight up (or nearly so)
Ability cost reduced to 30 from 35
Design Note: The above changes are a light-touch change intended to reduce the capability of the “dive bomb loops” playstyle without touching the ability’s behavior much elsewhere. Players should still be able to do a loop or two, but will be slower while doing it and will be less able to chain many loops together. We’ll continue to keep an eye on this vehicle’s performance and behavior overall--we like players being able to do interesting and unexpected things with the ability, but these maneuvers still need to fit into the overall pace of the game.
Kestrel
Penetration reduced to 70 from 80
Drone deployment range increased to 450 from 400
Drone range keystone reduced to 50% from 200%
Hull Traverse tech node values fixed to 3.5/7/10.5/14/17.5 from 3.5/7/10/13.5/17
Phantom
Aiming in sniper mode should now feel smoother as the hull rotates to aim towards the reticle
Ranger
Base Dispersion tech tree node reduced to 2/4/6/8/10 from 2.4/4.8/7.2/9.6/12
Movement Dispersion tech tree node reduced to 3/6/9/12/15 from 5/10/15/20/25
Aim speed tech tree node reduced to 4/8/12/16/20 from 5/10/15/20/25
Design Note: We like that Ranger is able to be active and aggressive, but it felt too free to use its dpm to the fullest on the move when building for accuracy. These changes intend to rein that capability in while still allowing the Ranger to use its speed and armor to aggressively take space.
Rook
A number of plates + thicknesses have changed, so describing it qualitatively will be easier. This adjustment has the following goals:
The vehicle should still be powerful hull down both on flat ground and peeking a ridge
However, the mantlet weak spot should be penetratable by more vehicles
When not looking at your target, the vehicle’s armor should be more exploitable
When at a lower elevation from your enemy, armor should be less effective
Reduced base gun depression to -11deg from -12deg
Tempest
Increased gun depression to -6deg from -5deg
Tricera
Lingering Mist Keystone reworked: The Smoke Wall reduces your time spotted by 1.5 seconds while active
Updated the ability description to clarify that it blocks spotting rather than “vision” which could be seen to imply that it shouldn’t be possible to visually see anything through the smokewall
Valor
Base Shell Damage increased to 160 from 147
Starting Energy tech tree node reduced to 5/10/15 from 10/20/30
Heal ability functionality reworked slightly: Charges up a healing shot that repairs any tank hit for 160% of base Shell Damage. The charge up process also heals you for half.
The Augmenting Shot keystone now also increases Valor’s Max Health
Design Note: The goal here is to reduce the amount of guaranteed starting energy and healing Valor can do while increasing its effectiveness at engaging directly with enemies and generating energy.
Vanguard
Missile explosions now trigger nearby missiles regardless of whether they’re attached to a tank or not
Increased the physics impulse applied to tanks when missiles impact them
Fixed a bug that caused missiles to not explode when the tank they are attached to dies
Fixed a bug that sometimes caused the missile explosion visual effect to not play or cut off early
Design Note: Vanguard missiles should now be a lot more flexible since you can chain explosions across them regardless of what they’re attached to.
🐞 Bug Fixes
Fixed a slightly overhanging out of bounds boundary in Expanse on the north side of the eastern structure
Fixed two small 0 thickness armor patches between Fortis' turret and hull
Vanguard missiles no longer apply impulse slow on attaching to allies
Fixed the Vanguard ability description to no longer reference a slow field
Fixed the description for the Recall ability to say the arrival zone is consumed
Fix intro sequence camera does not inherit FoV from game setting
Fixed some cases where the Tempest teleport ability could fail to teleport the player
Fixed projectile prediction/desync issues under latency, especially cases where client-predicted shells diverged from server shells, died early, or produced ghost fake projectiles
Fixed high-ping point-blank shots sometimes dealing no damage because projectile catchup could impact before damage data was initialized
Fixed tank main weapon fire being possible when the magazine was empty, which could allow an extra high-ping shell
Fixed held-fire reload completion timing for autoloaders
Fixed a race condition that could leave the last connecting player stuck at the "waiting for players" screen
Fixed Phase Gear causing reloads to reset
Fixed Siege Shells improperly granting resources in some cases
Fixed Bush ability briefly restricting main weapon fire
Fixed black sniper view during Bush ability growth
Fixed grass occluding the sniper reticle incorrectly at 2x zoom
Fixed spectate minimap ping alternate keybind behavior
Fixed Stealth not being able to turn while holding aim
Fixed rotating wall ability also changing zoom, and added ability scroll keybinds to match mouse and keyboard zoom keybinds
Fixed Mobility Surger activating 0.3 seconds after ability activation
Fixed Repulsor targeting after the new targeting flow required one frame before confirmation
Fixed Drone duration and keystone damage amp behavior when the owner had died
Fixed Drone targeting skew when used from sniper mode
Fixed Drone targeting UI cue cleanup when a player dies during targeting
Fixed Drone fire/reload montages canceling the deployed looping montage and popping the drone back onto the tank
Fixed abilities leaving right mouse button locked during cast.
Improved Fortis mine deployment visuals under latency to reduce midair rubberbanding on clients
Optimized Fortis mines by reducing recurring VFX/widget/network overhead
Fixed Fortis mine hit SFX/VFX inconsistencies when shot by projectiles
Fixed spawn walls allowing hover vehicles to drive through them
Fixed fallen trees not providing vision because the spatial component flag was missing
Fixed an issue where players could see only an outline on tracks
Delayed matchmade force-ready countdown until all players connect
Added a connecting players loading screen that shows connected player count and waits for expected players
Fixed party members unreadied while queued not removing the party from searching
Fixed return-to-lobby being visible in matchmade games
Improved party sync and in-game lease behavior so crashed/stale game servers are less likely to strand parties in an in-game state
Fixed login queue dialog getting stuck when queue-ready fired before the client subscribed to Online presence
Fixed lobby widget Tab behavior not opening details unless details was focused
Fixed missing space in Activate Ability setting text
Fixed minimap instantly closing when the open-map key was rebound
Fixed system default audio cutting in/out by removing redundant device swap handling and serializing swaps
Videos properly now play on the Steamdeck and Linux
Fixed issue where LODs on vehicles were causing visual artifacts when players zoomed out.
Fixed Resolution Scale slider showing 0% on first launch while the game runs at 100%
Disabled legacy mouse FOV sensitivity scaling so high sniper zoom levels do not further reduce scoped sensitivity
Fixed shadow setting description to make it more clear about Low being “Off"
Fixed party icons appearing inconsistently next to name plates
Fixed stale HUD player count and team-list death card state after disconnect during loading
Fixed scoreboard player count decrement/undercount issues when players die
Fixed intro sequence camera not inheriting FOV from game settings
Fixed sparse vehicle loadout validation so saving slot 1+ no longer fails ownership/count checks because of empty placeholder slots
Added new loadout import validation and visualization
Fixed unlock-track XP double-counting on rewards screen and stale Home next-unlock card
Capped battle history to 20 completed matches and added fallback for oversized batch reads
Fixed possible crash after unlocking a vehicle
Fixed crashes in spectate/HUD creation during server travel from match to lobby
Fixed crash in Smoke Wall ability if the owner becomes invalid after targeting confirmation.
Fixed issue where sometimes you squad members would get into different games
Fixed career XP booster application when another booster application was already animating
Fixed Battles replay completion/leave flow returning players to the correct tab