[Patch Notes] Dirty Bomb returns with new Loadout Cards, Party Matchmaking, and more!


(MissMurder) #1

Welcome, welcome! If this is your first time, get stuck in and start making a mess – There are guns for that. If you’ve returned after helping out with the stress tests, WE DID IT! Dirty Bomb is back online. For Good. No more data wipes, no more major downtime. Stress test rewards are also waiting –
‘Read on for more of those sweet infos, or delve into the brand new Dirty Bomb website for more (http://dirtybomb.com):

[u]Update Highlights[/u]
Playing with Friends
One of the biggest requests from many in the stress tests has been party matchmaking, so we’re excited to bring it to Dirty Bomb through the magic of Steam and programming.

Once you hit Level 7, you’ll unlock Matchmaking, both Solo and Party. In order to reach the Party Matchmaking screen, click on the “Play with Friends” button, accessible under the Play tab. Once there, you’ll be able to pick which maps, game mode and region to play on, as well as bringing your friends in by clicking on the “Invite Friends…” button, which brings up a Steam Overlay window you can use to invite your friends. You can bring up to four other players along with you, and any remaining slots will be filled by other matchmaking players.

• Known Issue: After completing a match with a Squad , it will be disbanded as you return to the main menu. This is not intended and will be fixed in a future update.

We look forward to reading your feedback on Playing with Friends, so be sure to let us know your thoughts in the Dirty Bomb Forums.

New Loadout Cards
We’ve given Dirty Bomb’s Loadout Cards a complete makeover to make them sexier and more useful. Loadout Cards now come in seven rarities, which define the number of Augments they have, the weapons the Merc can use and what sort of outfits they feature:

• Default (0 Augments) (what each Merc starts with)
• Lead (1 Augment)
• Iron (2 Augments)
• Bronze (3 Augments)
• Silver (3 Augments)
• Gold (3 Augments)
• Obsidian (3 Augments) (exclusively obtainable via special events)

Loadout Cards are found in Equipment Cases, which drop randomly at the end of matches. You can now also buy additional Equipment Cases straight from the Store in exchange for Credits.

Trading Up Loadout Cards
Craving some of those elusive Gold Loadout Cards right here, right now? Going hand in hand with the new Loadout Cards, we’ve also added a way to let you exchange unwanted Loadout Cards for a Loadout Card of the next highest rarity. Here’s how:

• Click the Loadouts tab, and select Trade Up Loadouts on the next screen
• Next, select the Merc you want to create a Loadout Card for along with the desired Rarity
• Finally, select the cards you want to exchange and pay the Credits transaction fee to create your new Loadout Card
• Each Loadout Card you create is randomly selected from all of the Loadout Cards available at the selected rarity for the selected Merc

• Trading up requirements are as follows:

  • Iron Loadout Card: 3 Lead Loadout Cards + 500 Credits
  • Bronze Loadout Card: 3 Iron Loadout Cards + 1,000 Credits
    -Silver Loadout Card: 4 Bronze Loadout Cards + 2,000 Credits
    -Gold Loadout Card: 4 Silver Loadout Cards + 4,000 Credits

This is a brand new system for Dirty Bomb, so please give it a go and let us know what you think on the official Dirty Bomb Forums.

Stress Test Rewards
If you played during the February stress test events, a huge thanks from the team for taking the time to help us put Dirty Bomb through its paces. You can pick up your exclusive Obsidian Loadout Card right now:

  1. Visit the Loadouts section
  2. Click the Cases tab
  3. Open the exclusive Beta Fighter Case that’s waiting for you there
  4. Enjoy your exclusive Loadout Card!
    If you participated in the January test sessions between the 6th and 20th this year, we’ve granted you in-game credits from the heavens – 30,000 of them!

(MissMurder) #2

Full Changelog
Ability Balance

Proxy

  • Increased Proximity Mine cooldown to 30s (from 25s)
    -This increases the cooldown to the same as Fragger’s grenades and should marginally reduce her killing potential which is shown as being too high in the Echo data

Fragger

  • Reduced Frag Grenade damage to 150 (from 160)
  • Careless Frag grenades will still kill Fragger but this should reduce the number of multi-kills seen in game, and bring him a little closer to the other Mercs in terms of stopping power

Arty

  • Artillery targeted at a wall will now land in front of that wall, rather than on top
  • This should make the ability much easier to use and more effective in a large number of situations

Skyhammer

  • Reduced Airstrike cooldown to 70s (from 90s)
  • This should make the ability a little more effective and fun to use, based on user feedback and
    XP/minute data

Weapon Balance
Hollunds 880 Shotgun

  • Increased shotgun pellet spread by ~10%
  • This is to reduce the effectiveness of the Shotguns at range (a common complaint seen during the tests) without impacting their close-range power

Remburg 7 Shotgun

  • Increased shotgun pellet spread by ~10%
  • This is to reduce the effectiveness of the Shotguns at range (a common complaint seen during the tests) without impacting their close-range power

BR-16 Rifle

  • Reduced bullet damage to 15 (from 16)
  • Burst-fire rifles are currently slightly too effective compared to their counterparts and this should reduce their damage output without severely impacting their killing potential

Stark Rifle
• Reduced bullet damage to 15 (from 16)
o Burst-fire rifles are currently slightly too effective compared to their counterparts and this should reduce their damage output without severely impacting their killing potential
Dreiss AR Rifle
• Increased bullet damage to 25 (from 24) and Reduced Fire Rate to 300rpm (from 360)
o This should increase the one-shot effectiveness of the single-shot rifle as it will now deals 50 damage per headshot. The reduced the fire-rate to put more emphasis on well placed single-shots over spam

Gameplay
• Updated the amount of XP required to reach each account level
• Ranked matchmaking is now unlocked at level 7
• Default mouse sensitivity changed to 10 based on player data, as it was the most common non-default value used during the two matchmaking weekends
• Reloading now correctly cancels the iron-sighting of a weapon
• Updated several Support actions to award Support XP rather than Combat XP
• Removed automatic player idle-kick based on XP
• Healing effects are now more visible in first person
• Added gas damage and death events
• Changed Tier 1 Merc price to 30,000 credits

User Interface
• Added a Store tab to the main menu for buying additional Equipment Cases
• Muting and Vote-kicking players can now be performed on the scoreboard
• Vote kick now displays success or failure message after vote completes
• Added option for custom key-bindings for Merc switching when incapacitated
• Matchmaking region selection is now saved
• Added Australia region to matchmaking options
• V-sync is now forced ON in the front-end
• Removed 640 x 480 resolution option
• Tweaked FE background to improve foreground element visibility
• Several End Game Review screen improvements

Maps
• Underground:
Replaced first capture objective with a destroy objective, also replaced secondary doors with generator powered gates

All Maps:
• Fixed numerous collision & lighting issues
• Fixed numerous cut-scene issues
• Fixed objective logic when handling things like client reconnects
• Secondary objective doors will now kill players caught in them while closing
Art

Loadout Cards:
•Updated all Loadout Card Merc poses, skins and lighting
•Updated weapon skins to reflect Loadout Card rarity
•Updated Merc skins for the new Loadout Card rarity system
• Increased the size of the green-dot on the Stark AR scope
• Updated various shop signs and posters throughout the levels

Audio
• Updated main menu music
• Added new music based on objective and match status
• Added several new short stings based on objective state changes
• Added audio for the different levels of badge awards
• Made the commander speech duck music and SFX
• Made in-game barks duck music and SFX more aggressively
• Added audio to end game review screens

Animation
• Improvements to the Basic Training intro cameras and character animations
• Fixed numerous animation issues including reloads not always playing in 3rd person
• Improved several first person animations

Notable Bug Fixes
• Fixed issue with incorrect Mercs (Arty) being accidentally unlockedFixed server-browser ‘Has Players’ filter so it functions correctly
• Nitros augment now correctly speeds up Minigun spin-up time, rather than slowing it down
• Fix issue where players were seeing double the number of badges than which they actually earned
• Removed player collision from discarded sleeping bags
• Fixed the killer’s load-out card not always rendering in-game
• Fixed issue where game review does not show XP/Progression on stopwatch matches
• Fix for defib sound continuing after death
• Fixed win bonus for credits to use correct values
• Fixed issues with explosives not damaging Healing Stations
• Fixed Auto-join feature so it actually retries connection to server
• Fixed issues caused by continuous sprint and reload key spam
• Fixed for Mid-air badge being awarded for killing grounded players
• Fixed issue with contracts not getting full XP updates on stopwatch
• Fixed bugs with teams not being correctly sorted by skill-rating in Matchmaking
• Fixed issue where player with highest rating would be put on the same team every time
• Fixed bug with Grenade Juggler augment allowing the player to throw infinite grenades
• Fixed numerous audio bugs including several ability explosions not playing at all times
• Spectators no longer get their contracts updated at the end of match
• Using a mounted gun while holding a laser painter no longer causes all kinds of terrible things to happen
• Fix for spamming F breaking C4 plants
• Fix for MG nests not overheating when first mounting
• Fixed a bug where people can shoot through the container on the last delivery objective on Bridge