A Norwegian death dealer, a redone Dome, a bevy of new rewards, and the ability to Party Up with your friends in Casual matches; We present The Javelin Update.
New Merc: Javelin
Norwegian powerhouse Javelin is storming the city.
Sent by Scandinavian tech startup Ghostclip, she’s proving out an experimental solution to ammo resupply in the place best fitted for it.
Her backpack prints ammo for herself and any teammates nearby, and her primary ability is devastating: A Reflex Rocket Launcher with two modes, a faster-firing standard setting and a slower yet spectacular laser guided alternative.
The first new Primary Weapon to hit the game in two years, The SHAR-C is a slow-firing, high damage, long range Assault Rifle that packs a powerful punch.
For now, the only way to get your hands on it is with select Javelin Loadouts, including her Default card.
Javelin’s Axe is a horror to behold, but oh-so-satisfying to use. Use to deal high damage in a relatively short space of time.
Javelin ‘Ghost’ Pack
Javelin’s getting stuck right in.
Get her along with a Limited Edition ‘Ghost’ Case, containing one random Loadout Card with battle-scarred skin variant. Only available in Store until the 5th of September.
New Feature: Casual Matchmaking
Along with many UI tweaks, we’ve completely overhauled the Play screen.
Quick Join has been replaced with ‘Casual’, which uses a new matchmaking system in the North America and EU regions, along with brand new team intro animations and post-match MVP lineup, and the existing Quick Join system in others.
Casual matchmaking provides us with the tools to better balance matches, and gives you the ability to (finally) play with your friends in a party!
It will take several matches to find existing players’ true skill ratings, so please allow some time for the system to adjust. For more info and a rundown on our philosophy behind this huge addition to the game, click here.
Updated Objective Map: Dome
We’ve overhauled the East-London airship-smuggling objective mission Dome, to bring it in line with our other maps.
Key changes include reducing it in size and complexity, to focus the action and give teams a clearer direction.
Read our recent rundown of the changes you’ll find here.
Assault Course Rewards
Prove your mastery of speed and accuracy with these new Assault Course Trinket Rewards.
Complete the Assault Course in the specified times to unlock them, ranging from easy (Bronze) to insane (Cobalt).
New Steam Achievements
To coincide with our new Norwegian noob-tuber and Assault Course rewards, you’ll find a batch of new Steam Achievements ready to be unlocked.
- Rock It - Play 30 minutes with Javelin in your squad
- Rocketeer - Play 5 hours with Javelin in your squad
- Rocket Queen - Play 20 hours with Javelin in your squad
- Air Cav - The sky is no limit
- Look Good in Blue - Craft or Trade Up to a Javelin Cobalt Card
- Bronze - Achieve Bronze Rank on the Assault Course
- Silverado - Achieve Silver Rank on the Assault Course
- Golden - Achieve Gold Rank on the Assault Course
- Blue Steel - Achieve Cobalt Rank on the Assault Course
- Homework - Complete the tutorial
Daily Rewards Improvements
We’re upping the rewards in our new Daily Play Rewards system, with higher rarity Loadout Cards dropping as you play through the week.
Each case contains a single, random Loadout Card for one Merc, with rarities as follows:
Mk I. Case - Lead, Iron, Bronze, Silver, Gold, & Cobalt
Mk II. Case - Iron, Bronze, Silver, Gold, & Cobalt
Mk III. Case - Iron, Bronze, Silver, Gold, & Cobalt
Mk IV. Case - Bronze, Silver, Gold, & Cobalt
Pricing Updates
Merc Prices
To make Mercs more attainable, we’re splitting their price points into five distinct tiers and reducing the price of many of them.
Some Mercs that are less team-focused (like Vassili) have been bumped up a notch so that less new players will use them to the detriment of their teams.
New In-game Bundles
We’re introducing new in-game bundles with greater savings to replace the existing ones. Each contains five Mercs and a collection of extra gear.
Veterans 5-Pack - US$19.99 (save 50%)
- 5 x Mercs (Sawbonez. Arty, Proxy, Rhino, Aimee)
- 10 x Golden Equipment Cases
- 1 x 6 Hour Booster
Strikeforce 5-Pack - US$29.99 (save 50%)
5 x Mercs (Fragger, Fletcher, Kira, Phoenix, Redeye)
- 10 x Golden Equipment Cases
- 2 x Elite Cases
- 1 x 12 Hour Booster
- 10,000 Credits
Firestorm 5-Pack - US$29.99 (save 50%)
- 5 x Mercs (Thunder, Vassili, Sparks, Nader, Stoker)
- 10 x Golden Equipment Cases
- 2 x Elite Cases
- 1 x 12 Hour Booster
- 10,000 Credits
Private Matches
Due to the low levels of usage (less than 0.10% of play time) Private matches are no longer available. Later this year, we’ll be launching Server Rentals, which will give you more flexibility and control over your own matches.
Tutorial First
Many of you have asked for the Tutorial to be made mandatory for new players, to better equip them for combat operations.
We’ve now made first time players enter the Tutorial by default, though they’ll still be able to exit via the Menu. We’ll be monitoring the change to see whether it improves the experience.
Weapon Balance Improvements
As with the Merc balance, we’re now jumping back into the realms of Weapon balance by first addressing the most common concerns.
More finely tuned Weapon balance will be coming in the following months, but we want to see how these impact the game first.
Sniper Rifles
These are controversial weapons in all games, not just in Dirty Bomb.
While we want to maintain their effectiveness in the right hands so good snipers are still valuable on the team, we’ve reduced the damage that body-shots will do with the following weapons.
This will still reward headshots, but will leave players with more health if the Sniper ‘misses’ and the shot hits the victim anywhere else.
- MoA SNPR-1 - Base body-shot damage reduced to 60 (from 75) – Headshot remains at 150
- PDP-70 - Base body-shot damage reduced to 40 (from 50) – Headshot remains at 100
- FEL-IX - Base body-shot damage reduced to 63 (from 79) – Headshot remains at 158
- Grandeur SR - Base body-shot damage reduced to 32 (from 40) – Headshot remains at 80
Burst Rifles
The amount of damage output by these weapons is still too high in the right hands. We’ve reduce the damage of each bullet in the burst by 1. Bringing their damage-per-second output in line with the automatic Assault Rifles.
- BR-16 - Reduced damage to 16 per bullet (from 17)
- Stark AR - Reduced damage to 17 per bullet (from 18)
Shotguns
While Snipers Rifles can be among the controversial weapons, Shotguns will always be right at the top.
Our end goal is to have them equal in power with SMGs, since Mercs with them have access to both. With Shotguns being more situational and weaker at range than SMGs, they do need to be significantly more powerful in their close-range niche.
Having said that, we do feel that Shotguns are currently overly effective at point-blank range. With that in mind we’ve slightly increased the effective range of these weapons, while reducing the maximum possible headshot damage, and reducing the damage that they do to the lower-leg of opponents.
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Hollunds 880
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Increased range at which damage falloff begins to 2.0m (from 1.7m)
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Reduced headshot damage multiplier to 1.3x (max 114 dmg) from 1.5x (max 132 dmg)
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Reduced lower-leg damage multiplier to 0.75x (max 66 dmg) from 1.0x (max 88 dmg)
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Remburg 7
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Increased range at which damage falloff begins to 1.5m (from 1.4m)
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Reduced headshot damage multiplier to 1.3x (max 125 dmg) from 1.5x (max 144 dmg)
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Reduced lower-leg damage multiplier to 0.75x (max 72 dmg) from 1.0x (max 96 dmg)
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Ahnuhld-12
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Increased range at which damage falloff begins to 3.6m (from 3.2m)
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Reduced headshot damage multiplier to 1.3x (max 100 dmg) from 1.5x (max 116 dmg)
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Reduced lower-leg damage multiplier to 0.75x (max 58 dmg) from 1.0x (max 77 dmg)
Revolvers
Similar to the high-damage Sniper Rifles, we want to reduce the body damage here but keep the current headshot damage to encourage people to take their time with these shots.
- Simeon .357 - Base body-shot damage reduced to 24 (from 30) – Headshot remains at 60
- Smjüth & Whetsman .40 - Base body-shot damage reduced to 27 (from 34) – Headshot remains at 68
Bug Fixes
Animation
- Fixed bug where Phantom’s Katana would clip into his body while crouching
Audio
- Fixed bug where the Hexadic trinket audio would not play
Gameplay
- Fixed bug where Proximity Mines could fail to come to rest when placed on top of one another
- Fixed bug where Trinket animations would not play in warm up
- Fixed bug where changing resolution settings would not always update in the Options Menu
- Fixed bug where certain elements of Mercs’ outfits would not appear white when viewed through Redeye’s IR Goggles
Level Design
- Fixed bug where the wrong voice line could play on the first Objective in Terminal
- Fixed bug where “Press K to Restart” would appear after completing the Assault Course
- Fixed bug where players could get stuck on the Assault Course if they died during the initial run
UI
- Fixed bug where an unlocked Proxy Cyber Eye Case would appear locked
- Fixed bug where the prompt ‘Surrender Vote is Now Available’ could trigger during the Tutorial and Assault Course
- Fixed bug where Daily Play Rewards were using placeholder text in French
Known Issues
- Players with a read-only “\Documents\My Games\UnrealEngine3\ShooterGame\Config\ShooterEngine.ini” file will crash when attempting to play matches.
- Please re-allow write permissions or delete the file after updating the game.
- Exiting the game while searching for matches can lead to the client still being treated as searching
- Please cancel matchmaking searches before exiting, otherwise you may receive a penalty for failing to accept
- Various Javelin animation issues, including her body being flung unceremoniously through the air upon death
but still…
