July 24th Update: Weapon Case Keys for Credits, Obsidian Operative Skyhammer and Fine Tuning


(Chris Mullins) #1

Welcome to yet another Dirty Bomb update! In this update we’re making tweaks across the board, including making Weapon Case Keys available for Credits, adding the option to Recycle both Weapon Cards and Special Edition Loadout Cards, and we’ve also made a plethora of balance updates. So check out the release notes below and enjoy the updatey goodness:

WEAPON CASE KEYS FOR CREDITS

That's right! Weapon Case Keys now have a Credit price so everyone can enjoy Weapon Cards without needing to spend a single RAD. We made this change as many of our long-term players have been asking for more items to spend their Credits on. We've also increased our Weapon Case drop rates by roughly 70 percent so you can make the most of this change:

  • Weapon Case Keys now cost 14,500 Credits
  • Increased Weapon Case drop rates by 70%

WEAPON CARD AND SPECIAL EDITION RECYCLING

Since Weapon Cards were added to the game we've been working on increasing their level of functionality to equal that of Loadout Cards and with this update we've made another step towards this. Now you can Recycle Weapon Cards in the same way that you can Recycle Loadout Cards. Weapon skin quality (Scarred, Pristine, etc.) do not effect the amount of Fragments you'll receive:

Rarity Fragments
Bronze 135
Silver 540
Gold 2,150
Special Edition 2,150
Cobalt 13,000

Not only can you Recycle Weapon Cards, but if you've got some Special Edition Loadout Cards gathering dust you can now Recycle those too! They'll provide you the same number of Fragments as Gold Loadout cards, so for each one you'll receive 2,150 Fragments.

It’s important to note that while not confirmed when Steam Trading is live we may later down the road add the ability for you to Trade and/or put Special Edition Loadout Cards up for sale on the Marketplace. We’ll give you more information on this a little later down the line, but due to the nature of these updates we don’t know for sure just yet if/when this will happen.

OBSIDIAN OPERATIVE SKYHAMMER

“The party starts here” - Skyhammer, 2015

You’ve seen his foot. You’ve seen his other foot. And now, here’s the rest of him. The thunder. Has. Come.

If you want to look like a badass when calling in an Airstrike or supplying teammates with ammo then this is the Loadout Card for you. Available now in-store for 3,650 RADs.

BALANCE UPDATES

Assault Rifles

The Stark AR, BR-16 and Dreiss AR are currently the weakest Assault Rifles and needed some improvement. They're all intended to be longer-range weapons so we've made changes to make them more accurate and more consistent at long distances:

  • Stark AR
    • Reduced Maximum Spread by ~15%
    • Reduced Spread Increase Rate by ~15%
    • Reduced Vertical Recoil by ~20%
  • BR-16
    • Reduced Maximum Spread by ~15%
    • Reduced Spread Increase Rate by ~15%
  • Dreiss AR
    • Reduced Maximum Spread by ~10%
    • Reduced Spread Increase Rate by ~10%

Shotguns

A common complaint about Shotguns is how effective they are when used while jumping. Due to their pellet-based nature our standard jumping penalties aren't as impactful when applied to them. With this in mind we've made a few changes to make jumping mid-combat with Shotguns significantly more punishing:

  • Hollunds 880
    • Increased Jumping Spread Penalties by +150%
  • Remburg 7
    • Increased Jumping Spread Penalties by +150%
  • Ahnuld-12
    • Increased Jumping Spread Penalties by +150%

Sniper Rifles

When using Bolt-Action Sniper Rifles players often get frustrated by the delay after firing before they can switch to another weapon, so we've reduced this timing while keeping the overall fire-rate the same:

  • MoA SNPR-1
    • Reduced 'Firing' duration to 0.5s (from 0.7s)
    • Increased 'Bolt-Action' duration to 1.0s (from 0.8s)

These changes keep the total time between shots at 1.5s

  • FEL-IX
    • Reduced 'Firing' duration to 0.5s (from 0.8s)
    • Increased 'Bolt-Action' duration to 1.2s (from 0.9s)

These changes keep the total time between shots at 1.7s

Fletcher

Fletcher is our main offensive Objective Specialist and is filling that role nicely, however his Sticky Bombs can be very difficult to avoid. To combat this we're reducing their explosive damage radius:

  • Sticky Bomb explosive radius decreased to 3.76m (from 4.16m)

Guardian

Guardian's Sky Shield ability is mainly used by defenders to hold choke points and is often not appealing enough to use for the attacking team when there's no EV to escort. This is why we've increased the power of the Sky Shield as an offensive ability while slightly reducing the power as a defensive one. This includes increased health and a decreased cooldown, allowing players to use it more often and in more offensive areas. The up-time of the Sky Shield has been decreased to make it less appealing for defenders, taking the overall down-time between Sky Shields to 10s (from 8s):

  • Sky Shield health points increased to 90hp (from 60hp)
  • Sky Shield lifespan decreased to 8s (from 12s)
  • Sky Shield cooldown decreased to 18s (from 20s)

With having one of the most effective Revives in the game, Guardian does lack the ability to heal her teammates once they are up. So that her revived teammates aren’t sometimes left on scarily low health we’ve increased the minimum amount of HP her Bionic Pulse can give to revived players:

  • Minimum health given on Revives increased to 50hp (from 30hp)
  • Maximum health given on Revives remains the same

Hunter

To improve Hunter's utility to his team we've reduced his EMP Arrow cooldown so he's able to utilise it more frequently to disable defences:

  • EMP Arrow cooldown decreased to 12s (from 16s)

Javelin

While we've gradually improved the Rocket Launcher's balance, it's still felt that Javelin's a bit too good versus players and not quite good enough versus Objectives. These changes make her Rockets less frequent and more valuable when used against Objectives, reducing the number of times she uses it to purely kill players:

  • Rocket Launcher cooldown increased to 35s (from 30s)
  • Rocket Launcher objective damage increased significantly

Rhino

While Rhino is always going to be our tankiest Merc, over time he's gradually become more powerful and more frustrating to play against. We've decided to make him a little easier to kill, but have also shaved off the edges of his hitboxes so you have to be a little more accurate when fighting against him:

  • Health Points decreased to 180 (from 200hp)
  • Reduced the size of Rhino's body hitboxes by ~2%

Turtle

Playing against Turtle can be a struggle for two reasons. First, if you don't have any explosive damage dealers his Deployable Cover is very difficult to destroy, and even when it gets to low health he can often replace it with a brand-new one very quickly. To compensate for this we've increased the damage bullets do to the Deployable Cover so everyone can kill it a little faster, and we've made reclaiming his Deployable Cover return much less cooldown than previously.

  • Bullet damage multiplier to Shield increased to 100% (from 90%)
  • Turtle Shield Reclaim cooldown reduction has been decreased to 35% (from 65%)

BUG FIXES

General

  • Fixed issue where key binds set in the front end could reset to default once in-game
  • Fixed issue where destroying a Bushwhacker Turret while stood on top of it could teleport the player around the map in community servers
  • Fixed various text a localisation issues

Want to chat about it some more? Check out our social channels.

(Chris Mullins) pinned #2

(kopyright) #3

Less spread for the Stark and penalties for bunny hopping shotguns? Yay! :heart:


(XP_Expert) #4

i think, SD working just for new player recently.


(ZaZa) #5
  • I like this a lot. No need to buy Rads or wait for daily awards to gather that pile.

Good update on the rest of stuff as well! :slight_smile:


(Ads913) #6

Flecther hammered again. Come on SD give this guy a break hes been nerfed out the door. while mines grenades and rockets are rife.


(Eox) #7

Fletcher is in a very strong position compared to other engies thanks to his ability to play offensively with a much easier time than other engies. That nerf is deserved.

That nerf shouldn’t effect you if you’re accurate and go for direct hits. If you used to spam them without too much aiming however, it’s effectively quite a nerf to that playstyle, which is a good thing.


(Ads913) #8

disagree Eox he has less ability time and arsenal in repair situations compared to others. Proxies are more preferred due to speed and mine damage and better selection of guns.along with turtle and bushwacker they can put up turrets or shield while repairing. fletchers playstyle is hindered because the lock on is weak and pointless against heavies. I have played him since he came out and has been on a downward nerf continually.and was extra punished with phantom emp nonsense. he is getting less exciting to play in the world were you have large rockets and Mines and grenade launchers,sticky bomb fails in comparison hes need a push.


(HELGA_bunga) #9

how can you play fletcher and not realise he is broken lmao ?, how about you stop relying on explosive spam and start using a gun ?


#10

Fletcher is not weak at all. You don’t take a few key aspects into account when comparing him to other mercs. Let’s break them down:

  • Fletcher is an engineer.
  • He has access to three sticky bombs at a time; they deal 90 damage on a direct hit, can be detonated at will, furthermore have no minimum range and aren’t nearly as much range restricted as Proxy’s mines.
  • He has access to more powerful secondaries than the majority of mercs: machine pistols/revolvers.
  • He has 110 HP just like Bushwhacker yet a higher movement speed than him.

(kopyright) #11

Nor do they emit a sound to give away their position.


(AlbinMatt) #12

I mean, Skyhaggis looks kinda nice with that fancy getup, but come on, why did you guys miss the chance to get William Wallace into the game?

Petition for shirtless Scottish smurf, anyone?

Oh, and I’m still wondering why SD is being so generous with the weapon skins. I expected them to use a more Rad heavy system for it, but now it just looks like a fat veteran can go drain their bank accounts. Though new players would of course be presented with the choice of long grinds if purchasing wuth Rads.


(Its Hari) #13

I like it I like it


(Your worst knifemare.) #14

I’m a little sad there wasn’t an MP buff in there.

Otherwise, nice update we have here.


([ *O.C.B.* ] Wildcard) #15

My only concern here is how the Rocket CD time increase works in conjunction with the Loadout system. With the original thirty (30) second cooldown the Recharge Augment was not entirely mandatory, now with a thirty-five (35) second cooldown lacking Recharge will result in decreased performance compared to the alternatives.

Yes she is technically categorized as a Fire Support, despite her categorization she hardly ever fit the role perfectly to begin with and has always felt and performed closer to a Fire Support/Assault Hybrid; this won’t change, even with these balance changes, due to the way the Rockets work and the similar clearing power they have to Fragger’s Frag Grenade. Prior to this cooldown increase Recharge granted around a twenty-five (25) second cooldown (25.5 seconds prior to any system rounding) to her Rockets, now Recharge will reduce it from thirty-five (35) to thirty (30) seconds (29.75 seconds prior to any system rounding) instead.

Effectively they’ve changed nothing and merely made her situation closer to the one Rhino has with his Nitros Augment, where it is more or less mandatory to keep on par with her alternatives or be viable in a non-casual setting; I do appreciate the increased damage to objectives though, but the degree of cooldown increase ultimately achieves nothing other than making an already preferred Augment for non-casual use mandatory.


(Mc1412013) #16

Like the clothes but ot the face. And im guessing its one load out again no options for different guns.

On the upside something to spend my 60k in free rads on.


(Mc1412013) #17

Also when we gonna get buffs on the nuclear pancakes they are too weak and need more damage.
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Kidding(maybe)
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.lol


(Rodolfosaurio) #18

Loving this update!
Now we need that crafting system improvement you talked about


(Muddy Muddy Mud Nade) #19

One day, man, one day.

As for the update itself, I like it overall. I’m surprised they nerfed Rhino’s HP, but I don’t play Rhino so I’m not gonna lose any sleep over it.
Also that Skyhammer looks badass and I’m actually probably gonna buy that (just don’t make it a BR-16 loadout please)


(Begin2018) #20

You forgot to disable vote shuffle/restart in PUBs :frowning: