Mercs making Bank, & Daily Missions
Murky corners & hidden back alleys, whispers & murmurings abound. MURMURINGS! The Mercs have been talking. They want remuneration for their efforts…unionisation was mentioned… How else are they going to afford trips to the countryside for a spot of cricket and cucumber sandwiches?
Introducing Credits; the one language that no Merc has any trouble speaking. Earn Credits by completing matches, levelling up, and obliterating Daily Missions.
Missions? Missions! Each day, you and your Mercs will be given 3 optional missions to complete in addition to standard match objectives. Complete these missions, and London’s generous benefactors will reward you with Credits.
[ul]
[li]Complete between 1 and 3 missions to open up mission slots that will be filled the following day[/li][li]Any outstanding missions remaining at the end of the day will be carried over to the following day, along with your progress[/li][li]New Daily Missions are brought online at midnight GMT[/li][li]Stay tuned for more info[/li][/ul]
Merc Unlocking & Rotations
When Merc unlocking was tied directly to levelling, you let us know that you wanted to be able to choose the order in which you unlocked Mercs. Since then, we’ve been working hard to make that happen!
Thanks to the new Credit system, you’ll be able to recruit Dirty Bomb’s available Mercs in any order you wish. On top of that, we’ve introduced a free Merc rotation system that will cycle through Mercs over time, making sure that you’ll be able to play with each and every Merc for free before picking them up, if you so wish.
[ul]
[li]To get you started, you’ll unlock Skyhammer and Aura once you complete Dirty Bomb’s tutorial[/li][li]You have access to 2 additional Mercs via the Free Rotation[/li][li]You can recruit locked Mercs at any stage, assuming you can meet their asking price[/li][li]Once recruited, you’ll own that Merc forever[/li][/ul]
[ul]
[li]It’s worth noting that Merc prices are currently reduced to allow you to unlock Mercs and test the system after just a small amount of playtime this weekend[/li][/ul]
We’re kicking this next phase of testing off with a pool of 7 Mercs. More will be introduced over time, but we’ll be sticking to these 7 for the announced stress test weekends. The reason for this is twofold:
1: As we’re introducing a large number of new players to Dirty Bomb, we want to ensure that the Mercs on show are some of the more balanced and complete Mercs in the game. They provide a solid basis upon which the community can provide feedback and allow us to monitor trends and performance more effectively.
2: We need to put the actual unlock & rotation system through its paces in the wild before beginning to expand the pool of available Mercs.
Merc availability this weekend is as follows:
Tutorial Rewards: Skyhammer, Aura
Free Rotation: Fragger, Proxy
Available to Unlock: Vassili, Arty, Proxy
Matchmaking & Server Browser
After the last Steam test, we’ve been hard at work improving matchmaking on the backend. We’re eager to put the updated system through its paces this weekend. To make things as swift and enjoyable as possible, we’ll be switching back and forth between using matchmaking and the server browser as the way that you jump in-game….so if one’s unavailable, use the other to find a match . Do bear in mind that this is a beta implementation; it’s entirely possible that it’ll behave oddly every now and again. If you notice any odd behaviour, please report it on the forum.
Map Availability
Server Browser: Chapel, Terminal
Matchmaking: Trainyard, Chapel, Terminal
General
[ul]
[li]Several Matchmaking fixes, including improved leaver handling[/li][li]Added a brand new intro video that plays when you first run the game[/li][li]Updated the levelling up progression system and rewards to align with the new unlock system. You now earn Credits at level 2 and 4. [/li][li]Significantly improved the End Game Review Screen[/li][/ul]
User Interface
[ul]
[li]Updated the Merc Selection Screen, which includes Merc Rotation[/li][li]Added borderless window option[/li][li]Added a 21:9 ratio option[/li][li]Capped framerate when in the front end menu[/li][li]Updated the video settings menu layout[/li][li]Added basic tooltips to video settings[/li][li]Updated the in-game experience feed[/li][li]Removed kills and deaths from the in-game scoreboard[/li][li]Updated the in-game Objective status indicators[/li][li]Secondary objectives now show a health-bar when looked at[/li][li]Pressing alt-fire on the scoreboard will now give the user a mouse cursor that can be used to mute players[/li][li]Improved the basic kick-vote interface[/li][li]Added Loadout Cards to the death-ghosts system[/li][/ul]
Maps
[ul]
[li]Continued optimisation passes on Trainyard & Chapel[/li][li]Updated sound occlusion maps on Terminal & Chapel[/li][li]Continued collision passes on Trainyard, Chapel & Terminal[/li][li]Updated lighting on Chapel[/li][li]Improved delivery objective [/li][li]Sped up many short interactions to be almost instantaneous (picking up/dropping the objective etc)[/li][/ul]
Art
[ul]
[li]Updated many Merc and Weapon skins[/li][/ul]
Audio
[ul]
[li]Updated commander audio for C4 reminders[/li][li]Added pain audio for when receiving gas damage[/li][/ul]
Animation
[ul]
[li]Reworked the incapacitated writhing animation to have less rolling around[/li][li]Updated the intro cinematic camera for the Tutorial mission[/li][li]Improved the third-person animations for:[/li][li]KEK-10 (SMG)[/li][li]Remburg 7 (Shotgun)[/li][li]Added a little more bling to first-person weapon firing animations for:[/li][li]Tølen (Machine Pistol)[/li][li]MP400 (Machine Pistol)[/li][li]MK46 (MG) [/li][li]Stark (AR)[/li][li]Timik-47 (AR)[/li][li]Grandeur (SR)[/li][li]PDP-70 (SR)[/li][li]BR-16 (AR)[/li][li]DE. 50 (Pistol)[/li][li]Simeon .357 (Pistol)[/li][/ul]
Gameplay
[ul]
[li]Several minor performance improvements in code[/li][li]Improved deployable placement detection for Ammo Stations, Health Stations and Turrets[/li][li]Arty’s laser designator is now much more forgiving[/li][li]Reduced initial spawn wait time when hot-joining a match in progress[/li][li]Thrown projectiles are now more responsive as they spawn slightly earlier[/li][li]Slightly increased melee & defib ranges to make them easier to connect[/li][li]Reduced on-screen blood strength by ~20% based on feedback[/li][li]Slightly increased the minimum time between consecutive wall jump, to prevent corner-climbing spam[/li][/ul]
Ability Balance
[ul]
[li]Fragger: Frag Grenades cooldown increased to 30s (from 20s).[/li][/ul]
Weapon Balance
[ul]
[li]M4A1 (AR) damage reduced to 14 (from 15) [/li][li]M4A1 (AR) recoil reduced by ~10%[/li][li]BR-16 (AR) damage reduced to 16 (from 18)[/li][li]Stark- (AR) damage reduced to 16 (from 17)[/li][li]Dreiss (AR) damage reduced to 24 (from 25)[/li][li]Timik-47 (AR) damage reduced to 14 (from 15)[/li][li]K-121 (MG) spread an recoil increased by ~5%[/li][li]K-121 (MG) effective range reduced by ~5%[/li][li]Ahnuhld-12 (Shotgun) effective range increased by ~15%[/li][/ul]
Bug Fixes
[ul]
[li]Fixed issue where players sometimes had missing weapons when spawning[/li][li]Fixed an issue that caused players to be invisible upon spawning[/li][li]Fixed an issue that switched weapons when attempting to fire[/li][li]Fixed the amount of XP lost when suiciding[/li][li]Fixed issues where gas damage could be avoided[/li][li]Fixed bug with invulnerability shield UI asset not disappearing [/li][li]Fixed issue where obituary weapon icons would frequently not appear[/li][li]Fixed depth of field setting not always being saved[/li][li]Fixed bug with HUD elements not always clamping to the screen edge correctly[/li][li]Fixed some potential server crashes[/li][li]Fixed first person character lighting issues[/li][li]Fixed potential issue where clients could be holding the incorrect weapon on the server[/li][li]Fixed reload animations for both Machine Guns[/li][li]Fixed issue where players could run levels without connecting to a server[/li][li]Fixed issue with Skyhammer’s LOD models[/li][/ul]
ADDITIONAL UPDATE
Last night/early this morning (depending on where you live :P), a hotfix was released to address a critical leveling issue.
Thanks for your help with this weekend’s test everyone; have a blast during the rest of the weekend :)!
