Skill Balancing & Making Match Placement Matter

Heyo, just a medium sized balance and gameplay patch.

Some highlights for this version are:

- You can see a timer next to your wanted level letting you know when you can next gain a star.

- Account XP at the end of the match is now based on your placement (Trophies x 1000) instead of XP earned in-game. This makes placement matter even for casual players.

- In-game score no longer considers your level at all. This used to cap at max 10 anyway and was needless complexity. Now score is ENTIRELY based on overtime kills and round wins.

- Assault can now run faster even when firing your gun. Marksman now gets discounted grenades. Caster has faster skill cooldowns. Scientist has faster chemical cooldowns. Criminal only loses 1 star on death.

- Many more skill balances.

Have fun!

bencelot

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[GENERAL CHANGES]

Account XP at the end of the match is no longer based on how much XP you earned in-game. Instead, it is based on your placement and trophies. Account XP is 1000 x trophies earned.

Trophy payouts increase more generously as more players join the server (as previously it was actually more trophy profitable to play in emptier servers due to easier games vs bots)

Trios mode now only gets up to 3+8 instead of 3+9 for winning in a very easy game vs bots. Solos and duos can still get 3+9.

Hovering over a class in the skill tree now shows its 3 perks

Damage numbers from damage over time (eg venom) pop up every 3 points of damage dealt, not every 1, to reduce visual clutter

[GAMEPLAY CHANGES]

Crate Race won't gve the 2 upgrades if a zombie opens a heart box. It'll cap at 24/25

The first active skill you unlock gives 20 max hp, not 30

The purple +2% damage upgrades now also buff knife and nades (indirectly buffing Marksman)

Increased the amount of cops in the map

Killing cops now shaves off 3s from your wanted level timer (indirectly buffing Criminal)

A timer now shows next to your stars showing when you can trigger your next wanted level

Knife rpm is now 90 instead of 80

Level ups no longer give score. This was kinda pointless ultimately, as everyone capped out at 10 anyway. This puts focus on overtime kills.

Toned down bots reaction speeds

Players who join a game late will get some overtime kills added as score, similar to cash and XP and bonus health etc

[CLASS CHANGES]

Assault's Run & Gun perk gets a new ability in addition to the +15% move speed. You don't slow down as much when firing your gun.

Assault's bullets move 20% instead of 15% faster

Marksman now discounts ALL weapons, not just tier 2 and 3 guns. This includes grenades, bazookas, molotovs, flashbangs.

Caster skill cooldowns are now +50% instead of +30% faster

Scavenger's copy coin doesn't release once you've collected your 4th heart and are about to revive. It'll wait till you rez, so you don't miss anything

Scavengers' passive regen and shift regen while standing still is +100% instead of +120% faster. Shift regen while moving is +25% instead of +30% faster

Criminal only loses 1 star on death, not 2.

Scientist restores chemicals +100% instead of +50% faster

[SKILL CHANGES]

Teleportation cooldown now ranges from 22s to 14s instead of 28 to 10s

Teleportation's chargeup time is no longer affected by the speed tag

Shift Supply dash size is now 10 to 50% instead of 16 to 80%

Shift Supply's mutation now does 20 instead of 25 hp damage

Blade Fury's base slashing size is a bit bigger, but it's mutation is a tad smaller

Blade Fury does 20% less damage, but its' cooldown is 2s faster

Manic Mechanic now benefits from size upgrades for bigger car explosions

Revenge Rockets does slightly less damage (to compensate for nades now benefiting from +2% weapon damage pickups)

Mana Shield's mutation slightly nerfed because players die and rez with 0 shield. It will then regen gradually to fill up capacity.

Invisibility fade time is now 0.3s instead of 0.5s

Phase Drifting cooldown ranges from 16 to 8s instead of 22 to 6s. It's healing radius is a bit bigger for the mutation

Shockwave now reveals enemies for 10s instead of 4s, and freezes bullets for 2s instead of 1s

Soul Drop mutation jump height is +20% higher

[CHEMICAL CHANGES]

Health Stimulant passive now gives a flat +20 max hp instead of +10% max hp

Goo Trap now slows players more aggressively, and gives +2.0m instead of +1.5m jump height

Warp Field now makes you shift +33% instead of +25% faster

Warp Fields come with 4 max charges instead of 2 max charges

[MODIFIER CHANGES]

Broken Barrier no longer starts players with 40% shield. Instead, it makes shield pickups restore 50% shield instead of the usual 25%. It still disables shield regen.

[BUG FIXES]

Automatic Armor explosion and Teleport explosion are now treated as "skill kills" for the "Kills using skills" daily challenge

Fixed a bug where you could ping other players doing some weird combination of holding mouse buttons

Potentially fixed bug with bots double casting skills

Potentially fixed bug with weapons swapping upon death

Fixed a bug with wanted levels not increasing as you'd expect