FINE TUNING UPDATE - SEPTEMBER 2015

(MissMurder) #1

It’s time for another Fine Tuning update! Along with our usual round of Balance Changes and Bug Fixes, we’re making a significant update to the Lobby screen. Read on for more…

Lobby Changes

The lobby is getting an overhaul. All players now settle in a single stack on the right, and more space is given to your Squad. Changing your Mercs and loadouts is now a simpler process, with the option to quickly change the Loadout Card of a Merc already in your squad.

Lobby Timer Changes

We’ve sped up the timers between matches to get you from game to game a little bit faster!

  • Warmup Duration to 15s (from 20s).
  • Game Review Duration to 25s (from 30s).
  • Lobby Map Voting Time to 15s (from 25s).

Objective Mode Lobby Changes

http://i.imgur.com/rHE56uU.jpg

We’ve changed how teams are organized in our public, casual Objective matches. To improve team balance and the quality of matches, players are not assigned a team until just before the match begins, and Locking In is no longer necessary.

For those that prefer playing on the same team as your friends, this change does not affect Private Matches, Stopwatch Mode or other, non-public Objective matches.

Balance Changes

Phantom
-Significantly reduced the visibility of his Refractive Armor when moving slowly.

Sparks
-Reduced the amount of time REVIVR spends overheating to 3.3s (from 5.0s).

Fragger
-Reduced maximum Frag Grenade count to 1 (from 2).
-Reduced Frag Grenade cooldown to 17s (from 30s).

Bushwhacker
-Reduced Turret health to 110hp (from 120hp).
-Increased Turret lock-on time to 0.6s (from 0.5s).

PDP-70 Sniper Rifle
-Reduced magazine size to 10 rounds (from 11).
-Increased reload time to 2.8s (from 2.6s).

KEK-10 SMG
-Reduced effective range to 18m (from 19m).
-Increased reload time to 2.0s (from 1.8s).

Hochfir SMG
-Reduced initial bullet spread by ~10%.
-Reduced reload time to 1.8s (from 1.9s).

Timik-47 AR
-Reduced spread and recoil by ~5%.
-Increased effective range to 29m (from 28m).

Ahnuld-12 Shotgun
-Increased rate of fire to 95RPM (from 86).
-Reduced reload time by 0.2s, independent of how many shots are reloaded.

Other Changes

Nader
-Martyrdom cooldown is now visible when incapacitated.

Redeye
-Redeye’s IR goggles may now be toggled while using a mounted gun.
-Friendly Smoke no longer blocks Defibrillator revives.

Proxy
-Fixed bug where Proximity Mines were noticeably floating.

Gameplay
-Weapon inspection is now visible when spectating another player in first-person.
-Fixed bug where Friendly Fire settings were sometimes enabled for Competitive Matches.
-Fixed bug where the number of placement matches required for a Competitive Ranking were not correctly displayed.
-Fixed bug where players could become stuck inside elevators.
-Fixed bug where Turrets could be placed inside generators.
-Fixed bug where ironsighting after firing will fire again.

Animation
-Improved the SMG9 third-person reload.
-Fixed bug with the Simeon .357 iron sight being off-centre.

User Interface
-Account Levels are no longer visible in Competitive Matches, as teams are sorted by Competitive Rank.
-All ammo sources will now show up on the HUD when low on ammo.
-Accepting an invite to a Private Match now takes players directly to the lobby.
-Fixed bug where the voting UI position would change.
-Fixed bug where only the creator of a Private Match could see the state of the Friendly Fire option.

Audio
-Completely reworked the weapon fire audio for the Caulden Pistol.
-Mercs will now automatically thank medics that revive them.
-Bullet-by audio has been enabled - enemy bullets are now audible when speeding close to the camera.
-Updated audio when unlocking items in the Menu.

(Eox) #2

Still no Blishlok changes ? :confused:

Anyway, the tweaks are pretty surprising. Fragger going from two to one nade ? I wasn’t expecting this. Maybe this will change the current meta.

(Harlot) #3

The Fragger change is fucking retarded. Straight up.

(Mister__Wiggles) #4

Fragger nerf is not needed imo. Timik getting some more love though so thats good. Kek gets yet another nerf…Another buff for the Anhuld is a bit silly considering its the all round best shotgun. Phantom gets a buff and I agree with it. All in all a pretty underwhelming patch imo, was hoping for some more weapon tweaks :confused:

(Spin) #5

Reduced Frag Grenade cooldown to 17s (from 30s).
Mercs will now automatically thank medics that revive them.
Reduced the amount of time REVIVR spends overheating to 3.3s (from 5.0s)
Interesting, helpful, good. Nice update yo. Hope door bug is gone too.

(JonSnow) #6

Phantom is finally getting some love.
But Guys. Why the Fragger change? He was fine the way he was…

(Fleshpound) #7

Still,nothing for Fletcher?? I am getting nervous here.

And btw:Phantom is still not stealthy enough :I

(watsyurdeal) #8

I don’t see the issue with Fragger’s change imo, faster cooldown and one nade means less spam and more skill required to get good results.

Would have liked some other buffs for that trade though.

(fuzzel) #9

LOL…Kastration 4 Fragger…why not give a other merc 1 Grenade?..tztz

now Aura`s Healing Station, Turrets and Rhino more OP as before…(Example: The players who hide behind Healing Stations)

incredible…

(Ardez1) #10

For those who are saying the Fragger nerf was not needed. Who was the best merc that every team had to have or it was going to lose the match due to being out-killed? Oh yeah… Fragger… I don’t think I have seen a tournament team without a Fragger in a long time.

And while this patch did nerf his grenade count the cooldown reduction on the grenade means in a 60 second period you can throw 4 grenades and have another grenade ready within 10 seconds after the 60 seconds ends.

Initial Grenade @ 0.00 -> Second Grenade @ 17.00 -> Third Grenade @ 34.00 -> Fourth Grenade 51.00. Then you would have the fifth grenade at 1:08.00 and a sixth at 1:25.00

With the previous cooldown you could throw

Initial 2 Grenades @ 0.00 -> Third Grenade @ 30.00 -> Fourth Grenade @ 60.00

Fifth grenade would be at 1:30.00 and sixth would be 2:00.00

The differences? You can throw a lot more total grenades with the existing changes, but you can’t sit on two at a time.

At this point I haven’t decided if this is more of a buff or a nerf. I am leaning towards nerf still, but we will see.

(Harlot) #11

I don’t get buffing the Ahnuld right after nerfing Bushwhacker so hard. You didn’t even take the time to see how that nerf will change the dynamic of engineers. I think the nerf alone was enough to make teams start using Fletcher over Bushwhacker. All they did is make a new engineer king to nerf next month when everybody is using him.

(VincentRJaeger) #12

Interesting changes, though I’d love to see some tweaks for the Grandeur, ah well.

Will be interesting to try out Fragger now after this.

(Edzer) #13

Kinda disappointing, was hoping for more weapon changes :l

(PeneTraitor) #14

It’s only a nerf for the beginning of a match. The cooldown reduction means you will pretty much always have a nade ready, just not 2. 17s is not that long when you got a mountain of bullets as well.

(MarsRover) #15

Nader
-Martyrdom cooldown is now visible when incapacitated.

Me no understand :frowning:

(Gi.Am) #16

Nader
-Martyrdom cooldown is now visible when incapacitated. <-- what the hell does that even mean?

Fragger change is interesting, more consistent but spread out damage (spread in time) instead of an instant high area damage potential, also means Fraggers have to be a bit more carefull with the aim since they don’t have a second one to correct errors.

Phantom change is certainly welcome. The Bushwhacker nerf isn’t on the other hand, I mean sure no problem with another tweak to the Kek but the further turret nerf is IMO uncalled for. Outside of people carelessly running into them, they are at best slowing enemies down. Reducing both the HP and increasing the lock on time only means that corner peaking turrets down becomes easier (and that is already trivial at best).

Weapon tweaks don’t think any of them were needed either, but not feeling partial to any of them.

Fixes, UI, Animation, Sound improvements are always welcome so good work there. But I hope they don’t introduce more performance problems :wink: .

(ZGToRRent) #17

Grenade cooldown should be bigger because it’s actually 13s+cook time before throw.

(DMaster2) #18

The Objective balance is very nice, also the Fragger’s change is interesting. Slight nerf but still very viable.
Sad to see that Redeye is still unplayable. It actually got worse, since PDP got nerfed and it’s the gun i use with him.

(j4m4) #19

Nerf, nerf and nerf…

These kind of games, that just only serve to whiners, dont have much future, like Nosgoth or APB. ( can see peak players on steam charts )

Fragger was fine.

(Lapfinou) #20

The Fragger change is not a nerf…

It is a buff : now you have at least 1 nade per wave instead of 1 every wave and a half.
You just made Fragger a little bit less powerful on the begining of games, but you made him better after, considering he is backed with a medic and knows how to throw his nades.