Patch Notes Early Access v2301

It's been awhile, Commanders! We are happy to report this week's patch will deploy on Wednesday, June 28, and boy is this a big one. We have a SIGNIFICANT change to the way our in-game leveling works, so please read the details and give us your feedback once you start playing a good amount of matches with it!

Gameplay Notes

• New Rig/Gear Leveling System
  • To the bridge the gap between 1v1 and 3v3 play styles we have made a comprehensive overhaul to the way players use their level-up points for upgrading:
    • 1v1 and 3v3 will now use the same rule set
    • Players can now reach Squad level 15 in all game modes
    • Rigs no longer have a personal upgrade level, but share the total Squad level
    • Respawn times are now tied to the Squad level, starting at 30s and scaling to 50s
    • When you gain a squad level you get one point to spend on each rig you control
    • Points are spent on the individual active gears of each rig, instead of the rig as a whole
    • ALT + 1, 2, 3 are still viable shortcuts for quick upgrading, but now follows a lowest-to-highest, left-to-right upgrade order
    • ALT + Q, W, E are additional shortcuts added to quick upgrade the specific gear slot you want to put a level-up point into
    • Each gears’ unlock level determines how many points are spent in that gear slot to unlock it
    • Each gear slot, locked or unlocked, provides stat bonuses per upgrade, as seen by a “ UP!” bubble text above the Command Grid. Spending points on gears that are already unlocked provides extra stat bonuses of that slot:
      • Weapon Slot = DPS
        • DPS used to scale with rig level, but now scales with points spent in the Weapon slot

      • Body Slot = HP
        • HP used to scale with rig level, but now scales with points spent in the Body slot

      • Utility Slot = SPD
        • SPD did not previously scale with rig level, but now scales with points spent in the Utility slot, making rigs faster than ever before

    • All Special Moves unlock at Squad Level 10
    • All software is unlocked at level 1 and level scaling has been removed
    • All software has been reworked to adjust for this change. Please see details below in the Gear Changes section
  • This is a huge shift in the way we want players to approach their strategy before and during the battle
  • This change puts focus on the gear itself, when to unlock it and why, and also this put focus on what kind of stat buff you want to put into your rigs as you play, depending on the changing needs of the battle
  • We understand this is a huge difference from the way Dropzone has normally been played and we look forward to all your feedback on this new style of upgrading
• 3v3 Ranked
  • 3v3 Ranked now allows parties to match with parties/non-parties of different sizes
    • Any combination totaling no more than 6 players will properly match, except for three parties of 2, as we do not want to divide up a party to complete a match

• Inspection Window
  • Players can now left-click on any Kavash, friendly/enemy rig, or summoned unit to see all statistical information for that unit, including but not limited to HP, Armor, and buff/de-buff statuses
  • This information is only updated if the player has vision of the unit that is clicked on. Old information will persist if the selection is on a unit that is out of vision
  • Left-clicking anywhere else on the map will close the Inspection Window

• Onboarding missions have been slightly reworked to account for the new leveling system

Pilot Changes

• Cortex:
  • Default Sensor SW has changed from Intelligence Grid to Hive Imaging

• General Vex:
  • Default Sensor SW has changed from Intelligence Grid to Satellite Network
  • Default Propulsion SW has been changed from Velocity Ramp to Turbo Pistons

Gear Changes

• Combat Rush
  • Auto-attack damage bonus switched to 2% per stack rather than a flat damage bonus

• Frag Rounds
  • Increased the explosion damage from 35 to 50 to be a little more competitive w/ Inferno Rounds

• Plated Conduits
  • Armor from +5 to +3

• Radar Mapping
  • Removed scaling, base sight range bonus from +15 to +30

• Resolute Stand
  • HP Regen increased from 2.5% to 3.5%

• Logic Rerouter
  • Lowered base CD from 40s to 30s and removed scaling

• Linked Sensors
  • Base sight range bonus from 10m to 15m

• Isolation Suite
  • Increased bonus armor vs Kavash from +7 to +9, removed HP bonus

• Robust Circuits
  • Removed scaling. Now grants a flat +150 HP bonus

• Heart of the Pack
  • Now triggers on Rig/Hive/Alpha/Boss kills rather than just Alpha kills

• Velocity Ramp
  • Now grants bonus speed when there are no other rigs nearby

• Reinforced Circuits
  • Now grants the Rig bonus armor when it is at or below 33% health

• Satellite Network
  • Grants the Rig vision of Cores on the ground

• Intelligence Grid
  • Grants the Rig temporary vision of a random enemy Rig every 15s

• Emissive Controller
  • Now grants a permanent +SPD bonus on Rig/Hive/Alpha/Boss kills, similar to Amoeba Protocol

Miscellaneous Notes

• Two additional “First Time Ever” penalty tiers have been added:
  • First offense ever gives you a message warning you that repeated offenses will increase your penalty
  • Second offense ever gives you a 2 minute queue penalty
  • Once these are both triggered all future offenses will be met with the already known Daily penalty tier

• Holding down ALT when viewing a gear card will expand it to a more robust informational mode
• The Test Loadout Sandbox now has a Jump Pad and an Uplink. Alpha position has been shifted
• Game Action Updates field no longer displays level-up or uplink complete statuses
• Metin 2 Promotional tab has been removed for all players who did not achieve level 10 before the promotion had completed
• Gear card backgrounds are now more opaque, for ease of reading
• Quickmatch checkboxes and labels now have a larger hit area, making them easier to click
• Some additional hover-over SFX have been added to the Masteries page
• The Boss power-up icon and Boss buff FX have been visually updated

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue where party members were seeing their local game mode and region selection instead of the game mode and region selected by the party member who initiated the match seek
• Fixed issue where an AI-controlled Pandora would use Litany of Plagues on her own friendly summoned units
• Fixed an issue where the attack range of Plutus’ Lapse Generator was 17.5m instead of 20m, like normal Lapse Generator
• Fixed an issue where the Sniper’s walk animation failed to loop after rig was stunned
• Fixed an issue where the Health pickup in Emergency Evac did not loop its animation properly
• Fixed an issue where the minimap's camera-view trapezoid on Styx was missing its bottom line
• Fixed an error message that would appear when attempting to seek a match while partying with a player that was under a seeking penalty
• Fixed an issue where Snipers transforming from Flight to Walk mode while hovering over a Jump Pad would not burn their transformation cooldown
• Fixed an issue where the Jump Pads in STYX would play their launch SFX twice
• Fixed an issue where in-game music would randomly stop and not play the next track
• Fixed an issue where Kavash health bars at full health were not showing slagged status
• Fixed an issue where the hover-text for Alpha Strike was stating the objective was worth 2 points instead of the normal 4
• Fixed an issue where the 3rd player of a team was not getting proper visual feedback when calling or participating in a Surrender vote
• Fixed an issue where Custom Lobby members would still appear in the lobby if they ALT-F4ed out of the game
• Fixed an issue were it was possible to start Custom Lobby game with an offline player in the lobby
• Fixed an issue where creating a Custom Lobby, then clicking Exit Game did not destroy the lobby
• Fixed an issue where the Landfall SFX would play twice if Landfall was interrupted just before it took off
• Fixed an issue where no artwork or scenario name was displayed for the loading screen if you clicked Retry for Emergency Evac I
• Fixed an issue where changing your Player icon did not immediately update for the Match Rewards screen
• Fixed an issue where the ambient SFX for STYX would still play even if Dropzone was not the top window
• Minor localization fixes

Known Issues

• AVG antivirus software may incorrectly flag the Dropzone client as malicious. We have reached out to them to whitelist the client. In the meantime, you should be able to manually allow your antivirus software to allow the Dropzone client to run
• There are known issues with words bleeding outside of their bounding boxes for every language other than English. Fixes are on the way
• Locking Observer slots in Custom Matches only works when both slots are empty
• The Private Match setting only works when the game is already created, so someone can join in-between
• Hive Link does not have a cast ring around hives to show where the ability can be cast
• Global Chat does not reflect your changed name until you have restarted the game
• Due to the new leveling system, older replays will be using observer information that is out of date. A replay wipe will be in the near future, so we suggest video capturing any replays you would like to save

That's it for this week everyone. Let us know what you think in the forums and remember, Snipers 2 and 3 are less than a month away!

See ya, belters!