Evolution…growth and adaptation working in tandem to ensure that the fittest survive and go on to introduce even more awesomeness to the world…that applies to cold hard steel, and gunpowder too, right?!
Dirty Bomb’s DarWINian update sees the Mercs become stronger, and quite a few elements of the game grow and evolve to become better versions of their former selves. Mercs, Weapons, Dome, Crates, Loadout Cards, and even patching all see progress. Let’s dive into a bit more detail below!
Central Intelligence Hub
We’d like to remind everyone that many of these changes will have follow-up work in later game updates. They are not final. Your feedback is very much encouraged, as it will help to guide the development of these elements during that follow-up work J.
[ul]
[li]General Design Changes[/li][li]Merc, Ability & Weapon Balancing[/li][li]Two Brand New Weapons[/li][li]More Loadout Cards[/li][li]New Crates[/li][li]Dome Expansion[/li][li]UI Evolution[/li][li]Bug Fixes[/li][/ul]
DESIGN
General
[ul]
[li]Account and Merc levelling speeds have been increased for testing purposes. We very much want to hear what you think about levelling, particularly with regards to the Mercs as you unlock them at higher levels. Please note that all player progression has been reset, as a result of the significant changes that have come in this update.[/li][li]Reduced default sensitivity from 10 to 7 to make it a little be easier for new players to air out Merc bodies[/li][li]Reduced default FoV from 70 to 65[/li][li]When spectating, Attackers and Defenders have been assigned a static colour. The colour does not change regardless of the team that you’re spectating[/li][li]Enemy respawn timers and death/incap indicators are no longer displayed on the scoreboard[/li][li]Dead players automatically respawn with the wave in Stopwatch (incapacitated players do not)[/li][li]Players now receive 5XP every 5 seconds when defending an objective, whether its protecting a Carryable’s Destination, guarding a planted bomb or more.[/li][/ul]
Merc, Ability & Weapon Balance
Considerable changes have been made to Dirty Bomb’s Mercs, Abilities and Weapons. We’re looking to make the characteristics of each stand out from the crowd even more so than they had previously. The changes have been made to place a greater emphasis on their playstyle, as well as the impact that each Merc can bring to a team.
It’s important to bear in mind that this is the first pass for this new direction in design philosophy, so it may be a little rough around the edges right now. Once you’ve had a bit of time to adjust, we would very like to read what you think about the changes.
We’re eager to see how the changes feel to you without your feedback being pre-empted too much by us. As such, we’ll be releasing the balance changelog in a few days, after the first reactions have come in. We hope you understand where we’re coming from, and very much look forward to reading what you have to say!
Two New Weapons
Introducing the FEL-IX and…cough the SMG_05 (to be named later). You can kit your Mercs out with these new weapons via the Loadout Card system.
[ul]
[li]The FEL-IX is a high powered bolt action rifle with the ability to drop some of the smaller Mercs with a well placed body shot. Chambering another round in that beast of a rifle can take quite some time though.[/li][li]The SMG_05 doesn’t have the highest rate of fire in the world, but it’s initial accuracy is high; and when you land those hits, boy do they make their presence felt[/li][/ul]
New Loadout Cards
162 new Loadout Cards have been built and added to Dirty Bomb, introducing new ways to kit out your Mercs and lay down lead on the streets of London. As always, we’re eager to hear what you have to say about these Loadout Cards.
New Crates
The evolution continues. 15 unlocked crate variants have been added to the game. These crates do not require keys to open, and drop at the end of a match in the same manner that crates have done to date.
On top of that, three new locked crates have been added to the game. As is currently the case, locked crates are opened using keys. Locked crates contain Loadout Cards that tend to offer slightly more impressive skins than standard crates. Again, let us know what you think, which do you like? Which do you think are a little less awesome?
MAPS
[ul]
[li]Wave respawns now occur every 30 seconds in Stopwatch Mode [/li][li]The time limit for the first stage on Objective maps has been slightly increased, while it has been slightly decreased elsewhere in the map. Overall map duration remains the same, but the attackers now have a bit more of a chance to get rolling. [/li][li]All carryable return times are now 5s (Bridge was previously 0.75s)[/li][li]Overtime is now only triggered on carryables when they are actively being delivered (interacting with the destination)[/li][li]A small amount of polish has been applied to lighting across all maps[/li][li]A number of minor collision oddities have been removed across all maps [/li][li]Exploding barrels and cars have been removed, as they weren’t proving to have a particularly positive impact on gameplay[/li][/ul]
Dome
Dome has received quite a sizeable update, much of which was influenced by feedback that we’ve received from the community. We have published a lengthy post in the forum discussing these changes, so please feel free to head over there for more detail.
A brief summary:
[ul]
[li]A brand new primary objective has been added to the start of the map, bringing the number of stages on Dome up to three![/li][li]The final objective has received additional cover to make attacking a little less hazardous to your health. [/li][li]After popping on mining helmets, switching on headlamps, and shoulding heavy pickaxes; the devs have managed to mine out some additional subterranean routes around the secondary objectives[/li][li]The helipad area has received a number of tweaks to make it slightly more inviting. [/li][/ul]
USER INTERFACE
Front-end Menus
Crate opening has received its very own upgrade, the entire process should be a little bit more awesome now thanks to:
[ul]
[li]New audio[/li][li]A brand new animation sequence[/li][/ul]
Individual audio options have been added for:
[ul]
[li]Music[/li][li]SFX[/li][li]Dialog[/li][/ul]
AUDIO
[ul]
[li]Added new taunts and frontend barks for Proxy and Vassili[/li][li]Mixing improvements have been made to many elements of the game[/li][li]Updated reload sounds for several weapons[/li][li]Muting a player now prevents their V-Says from playing[/li][/ul]
BUG FIXES
[ul]
[li]Fixed broken textures on Highest res Skyhammer[/li][li]Toned down camera animations for Arty’s default Primary weapon[/li][li]Stoker somehow managed to fire his rifle without a magazine when using a specific Loadout Card. That no longer happens. [/li][li]Aura and Proxy can now crouch and reload without demonstrating their double jointed party tricks[/li][li]When going up stairs / slopes, Mercs no longer crouch in 3rd person[/li][li]Fixed C4 IFF not showing after respawn[/li][li]Fixed issue where spectators were being considered for ready up[/li][li]Concussion grenades are now replicated to spectators correctly[/li][li]Stopped defib sounds when the player charging the defib is incapped/killed during charging process[/li][li]Crosshair settings are now saved to the user profile[/li][li]Minor synchronisation/network utilisation improvements have taken place[/li][li]Fixed wrong delivery prompt for final objective in Chapel[/li][li]Adjusted incapped collision area so it is not clipping through the floor. Revives should be easier as a result.[/li][li]Blood damage effects now more closely reflect your current health[/li][li]Corrected a number of instances in which audio did not play correctly:[/li][li]Fixed missing audio for Smoke Grenades[/li][li]Fixed missing audio for Redeye’s default rifle[/li][li]Fixed missing audio for hit feedback[/li][li]Fixed missing audio for Phoenix abilities[/li][li]Fixed missing IR goggle audio[/li][li]Fix for missing audio on Fletchers sticky bombs[/li][li]Fixed wrong audio playing when glass is destroyed[/li][/ul]
but that’s not really the rodent’s fault.
