Unlock and Load Update - 5/19/2016

(RazielWarmonic) #1

Forgiveness or vengeance? With fresh information on the culprit behind the death of Max Bashki, Aimee has tracked Proxy down, and is met with a surprising choice to make. Check it out in the closing chapter of the Rogue en Vogue comic.

All Culprit cases and Obsidian Culprit cases will be openable with the update, giving you one of Proxy’s nine possible loadouts from the new Second Edition set.

Proxy’s eye has been SNITCH-cooked, and the injury isn’t just restricted to these cards. Her new handicap will be reflected on all Loadout cards, past and future, until she can find some help from an expert in the art of biomedical engineering…and who knows how long that could take?

Free Aimee Detective Loadout Card

Turns out SNITCH is keeping an eye out for Aimee, too! As a thank you for joining us throughout the Rogue en Vogue event, we’re giving away a Limited Edition one-off Aimee ‘Detective’ Case to everyone that logs in between May 19th and May 23rd, which will drop one of nine possible Limited Edition cards from the Second Edition set.

Aimee Detective Card Giveaway Duration[list][]London (BST, UTC+1): 18:00 Thursday, May 19 - 18:00 Monday, May 23[/][]Los Angeles (PDT, UTC-7): 10:00 AM Thursday, May 19 - 10:00 AM Monday, May 23[/][]Sydney (AEST, UTC+10): 3:00 AM Friday, May 20 - 3:00 AM Tuesday, May 24[/][/list]

Case-a-Day May

For the rest of the month, we’re giving away an Expert Case for every single day you play! A Combined Expert Case containing Second Edition Loadout Cards for all Mercs will drop after your first match of every day, starting Thursday, May 19th and running until May 31st. The daily reset time is 00:00 UTC, in line with the daily bonuses for first match played in Objective, Stopwatch and Execution.

Case-a-Day May Giveaway Duration[list][]London (BST, UTC+1): 18:00 Thursday, May 19 - 18:00 Tuesday, May 31; Daily Reset at 1:00[/][]Los Angeles (PDT, UTC-7): 10:00 AM Thursday, May 19 - 10:00 AM Tuesday, May 31; Daily Reset at 5:00 PM[/][]Sydney (AEST, UTC+10): 3:00 AM Friday, May 20 - 3:00 AM Wednesday, June 1; Daily Reset at 10:00 AM[/][/list]

Second Edition Loadout Cards

Kira with a Katana? Proxy with Lock-On? It’s time to upgrade your deck with the Second Edition of Dirty Bomb’s Loadout Cards!

The goal of Second Edition is to make every card more balanced in terms of desirability and gameplay impact. We’ve kept the weapon and Augment combos of popular cards, and replaced lesser used cards with ones that have traits players have preferred over the course of Open Beta. By iterating with members of the community in our Private Test Server, we’ve settled on a set that we hope will breathe some fresh air into our card spinners.

All cases that drop or are bought in the store will now stock only Second Edition Cards. First Edition cards can still be used, and purchased directly from the Store in Bronze rarity, but if Traded Up or Traded In will result in Second Edition Cards.

You can now also “Favorite” Loadout Cards, so they stay at the top of the list in the Barracks and when equipping cards for a match.

Refreshed Tutorial

New players’ first experience of Dirty Bomb has been fine tuned, starting with a refreshed tutorial. We’ve removed some of the ‘tutorialisms’ unnecessary for PC shooter players, and added extra sections to expand on the core mechanics and key details that set Dirty Bomb apart from the crowd.

Assault Course

The new Assault Course is designed to give both new and experienced players a space to improve their speed and accuracy. The first run, unlocked after a player’s first match, teaches the basics of wall jumping and long jumping. After completing it once, you can return at any time to take on the clock, destroying enemy dummies and throwing ammo packs to friendlies. Can you race through the course fast enough to hit the Cobalt rating?

Arsenal Crates

To reward players for levelling up, we’ve added Arsenal Crates into the mix. These hefty containers drop every time you level up, starting at Level 7, and stock a number of potential goodies.

Arsenal Crate Contents

To better ease new players into Dirty Bomb, we’ve adjusted the early Level-Up rewards, adding a Credit Booster and a Case containing a Gold Loadout Card for Skyhammer or Aura before players hit Level 7.

More Credit Boosters

We’re also introducing bite-sized Credit Boosters to the store, with $0.79 USD for a 1-Hour Credit Booster and $1.49 USD for a 3-Hour Credit Booster (or local equivalent). As with the existing boosters, these count only for time spent in matches, and will not expire while you’re in the menus or offline.

(RazielWarmonic) #2

Balance
Thunder

With this update, we’ve set our sights on making Thunder a tougher Merc that can better lock-down enemies with his Concussion Grenade, boosting his health and the impact of Flashing and Concussing his victims. While we had to remove the EMP effect from the Concussion Grenade to keep him balanced, we feel that the new and improved Thunder will make for an effective alternative to Fragger and Rhino.

  • Increased health to 170hp (from 160hp)[/][]Reduced Concussion Grenade fuse time to 1.0s (from 1.2s)[/][]Blinded players will now correctly have HUD elements (like enemy indicators) hidden[/][]Blinded players now cover their face with their hand in third-person (before this applied to Concussion, not blinding)[/][]Concussion Grenades now reduce movement speed for a minimum of 2.5s and a maximum of 6.0s[/][]Concussion movement reduction effects now also apply to jumping height[*]Removed EMP effect from Concussion Grenades

Phantom

Phantom has also received a long-deserved buff. Instead of focusing on his stealthy solo play, we wanted to improve his team-utility with something that complimented his ability slip past the meat-shield up front and get up-close and personal with the squishy people in support. With that in mind we’ve added an EMP effect to Phantom’s Refractive Armor. While active, this will disable enemy deployables for a short time, creating an opening in even the most heavily defended position.

  • Added an EMP field to Refractive Armor, which disables nearby (~10m) enemy deployables while cloaked[/][list][]Enemy deployables remain disabled for 5s after leaving the EMP field[/][]Increased Refractive Armor duration by ~10%[/*]

Fletcher

  • Reduced Sticky Bombs radial damage to 85 (from 100)[/][]Increased Sticky Bomb maximum damage radius to 4.16m (from 3.84m)[/][]When detonated, Sticky Bombs now deal an additional 15 damage if stuck directly to an enemy[/*]

Fragger

  • Reduced health to 140hp (from 150hp)[/*]

Bushwhacker

  • Reduced Turret set-up duration to 1.6s (from 2.0s)[/*]

Proxy

  • Sped up Proximity Mine throw anim/time to 0.67s (from 0.8s)[/*]

Sparks

  • Sped up Health Pack throwing time to 0.63s (from 0.76s)[/*]

Sawbonez

  • Sped up Health Pack throwing time to 0.63s (from 0.76s)[/*]

Augments

  • Quick Charge - 10% increase to round charge rate (reduced from 15%)[/][]Tough - Reduces the delay until health regen starts by 66% (increased from 33%)[/][]Unshakeable - Reduces the damage you take from explosives by 15% (reduced from 20%)[/][]Undercover - 10% increase to ability duration (reduced from 20%)[/][]Quick Slash - Increases attack speed and charge time by 15% (reduced from 25%)[/*]

Other Changes
User Interface

  • Players with less than 50% Health will now appear to Medics as needing healing (this used to be 40hp or less)[/][]Estimated Queue times are now always shown in Ranked, even when specific maps are selected[/][]Added a warning stating that selecting specific maps may increase Queue times in Ranked[/][]Added a ‘bonus credits’ icon to Ranked mode in the Play menu[/*]

Audio

  • Added audio for Long Jumps and Wall Jumps[/][]Added audio for climbing ladders[/][]Turning around on the spot no longer generates footstep audio[/][]Jumping on the spot will now generate landing audio[/][]Continued V-Bear reverb improvements for all weapons[/*]

Notable Bug Fixes

  • Fixed bug where Molotov flames would sometimes not correctly spawn when thrown at certain objects/geometry (see the changeshere)[/][]Fixed bug where C4 timers could count towards objective progression for Stopwatch win/tie rules[/][]Fixed bug where Heartbeat Sensors, Healing Stations and Ammo Stations did not have a deployable icon visible to their owners[/][]Fixed bug where players could block Phoenix’s Healing Pulse[/][]Fixed bug where abilities from recently dead players could damage their team’s EV[/][]Fixed bug where Fletcher could be left holding Sticky Bombs after detonating them using Quick Ability keys[/][]Fixed bug where certain characters in player names could break objective notifications[/][]Fixed bug where there was a missing explosion sound on Bridge[/][]Fixed bug where reloading would cut-off firing audio[/][]Fixed bug where the Classic Team HUD could overlap with the Objective UI[/][]Fixed bug where Secondary Fire would appear unbound in the User Profile[/][]Fixed bug where Toggle Use option was not correctly displaying in the User Profile[/][]Fixed bug where incapacitated players would display Ammo-needed HUD icons[/][]Fixed bug where the Execution Badge was not appearing on the Profile screen[/][]Fixed bug where players could potentially receive Ammo from enemy Ammo Stations at infinite distance[/][]Fixed bug where Ammo given to enemy players would contribute to Ammo Badges[/][]Fixed bug where the Spotter Augment would not increase the SNITCH detection radius[/][]Fixed bug where Guardian Angel Augment warnings would sometimes not be heard for Orbital Lasers[/][]Fixed bug where Flying Pig Augment would not fully increase the Long Jump distance by 10%[/][]Fixed bug where Explodydendron Augment was not visually scaling up Orbital Lasers and Artillery Strikes[/][]Fixed bug where players could not gib themselves with their own explosive damage[/][]Fixed bug where Map Restart countdown text was not appearing when a Map Restart Vote is passed[/][]Fixed bug where dropping a Carryable Objective next to an Ammo Cache could prevent it from being picked up again[/][]Fixed bug where Bolt-action Sniper Rifles would automatically reload even when the option was disabled[/][]Fixed bug where player position could be de-synced on the server after they had been pushed by explosive damage[/][]Fixed bug where Skyhammer’s eyes would not be drawn on low graphics settings[/][]Fixed bug where the Fragger’s Iron Loadout Card skin appeared identical for enemies and friendlies[/][]Fixed bug where killing revived players on low health still rewarded 100% Kill XP[/*]
(Draco) #3

Turtle, it’s that you?

(Guziol) #4

Cool changes. Does that mean that ‘stuck’ stickies will deal 115 damage now?
Also was hoping for some weapon balancing, MK46 feels underwhelming still. Maybe some love for smg9 but im sure you are aware of that.

(RazielWarmonic) #5

[quote=“Guziol;179953”]Cool changes. Does that mean that ‘stuck’ stickies will deal 115 damage now?
Also was hoping for some weapon balancing, MK46 feels underwhelming still. Maybe some love for smg9 but im sure you are aware of that.[/quote]

Stuck stickies will still deal 100 damage. :smile:

(Guziol) #6

Damn, i was hoping for 115 because “Radial damage” was a bit misleading.

(TheGreatHoundini) #7

[quote=“RazielWarmonic;179960”][quote=“Guziol;179953”]Cool changes. Does that mean that ‘stuck’ stickies will deal 115 damage now?
Also was hoping for some weapon balancing, MK46 feels underwhelming still. Maybe some love for smg9 but im sure you are aware of that.[/quote]

Stuck stickies will still deal 100 damage. :smile: [/quote]

So it’s 100 damage + 15 damage… Where 15 is a “Damage Modifier” and not “Base Damage”?
Basically we’re saying the 15 damage part is variable and no one should confuse “New Base Damage” for Stuck as 115?

(TheGreatHoundini) #8

Also… I can just imagine all the people who picked Proxy for her looks going bananas over her “makeover”. Wahahaha!

The “messed up” look would have worked great for Stoker btw…

(N8o) #9

[quote=“RazielWarmonic;179960”][quote=“Guziol;179953”]Cool changes. Does that mean that ‘stuck’ stickies will deal 115 damage now?
Also was hoping for some weapon balancing, MK46 feels underwhelming still. Maybe some love for smg9 but im sure you are aware of that.[/quote]

Stuck stickies will still deal 100 damage. :smile: [/quote]

But… It said increased by 15???
Does radial damage count as the base damage?

(TheGreatHoundini) #10

Proxy: “Combat Sapper… with a scar.” :stuck_out_tongue:

(grandioseCutlet) #11

“To better ease new players into Dirty Bomb, we’ve adjusted the early Level-Up rewards, adding a Credit Booster and a Case containing a Gold Loadout Card for Skyhammer or Aura before players hit Level 7.”

Alright so level 7 players will have as much golds as I do after 1 year. Great. Not retroactive I guess? (don’t even know why I bother asking)

Good to see Tough buffed, it’s gonna be a quite good augment now.

Sad to see Sparks murdered even more, even though at this point it doesn’t even make a difference anymore.

(Guziol) #12

[quote=“RazielWarmonic;179960”][quote=“Guziol;179953”]Cool changes. Does that mean that ‘stuck’ stickies will deal 115 damage now?
Also was hoping for some weapon balancing, MK46 feels underwhelming still. Maybe some love for smg9 but im sure you are aware of that.[/quote]

Stuck stickies will still deal 100 damage. :smile: [/quote]

What happend with rewarding skilled fletchers more while nerfing spammy cheese gameplay. I recall someone saying on stream that stuck stickies will actually deal more damage than current stuck stickies. I might be wrong of course but i was looking forward to that change.

(ArsonistCow) #13

“Quick Slash - Increases attack speed and charge time by 15% (reduced from 25%)”
What does charge time mean? Typo?

“Fixed bug where Explodydendron Augment was not visually scaling up Orbital Lasers and Artillery Strikes”
Does this mean that Explodydendron now works for Kira’s laser? Because it previously(/currently) only worked on the explosion that happened when calling it down.

(SaulWolfden) #14

Interesting, the hp changes to Thunder and Fragger now have each “high hp merc” seperated by a difference of 30 going in order. Fragger - 140, Thunder - 170, Rhino - 200

(Cuck) #15

With that much bug fixed?

Actually now im okay with waiting if this means more bug being fixed.

Thanks SD

(Yoma) #16

So Fletcher got his Stickiesdamage reduced by 15 and stuck dealing these 15 back and add up to once again 100 damage… .So just a plain nerf.

About the Gold Card+ Creditbooster which those below level 7 get, this is a thing which people who are already higher level should get aswell because unlike the arsenalcases where they stated that everyone starts more or less at the same kind of position, this goldcard and credit booster cant be achieved anymore for those higher than level 7 and therefor is a little unfair for those who play the game for longer than the few hours the level <7 do. (Not that its that much but still it should be fair for the Veterans.)

(TheGreatHoundini) #17

Yeah… I missed the part where they said the new base damage was 85… What a bummer.
But at least the radius is increased… that too was a problem.

(Black) #18

Totally didn’t see that Fragger health nerf coming. I guess players will now feel an incentive to pick Thunder due to him having 30 more health.

Also that tough augment change is going to make it a must on high HP mercs.

(Reddeadcap) #19

Why lower Fraggers HP :neutral: , this also means that he’ll move as if he had 150 still, not anymore for Thunder, but Phantom, Vasilli still do.

(sneak) #20
  1. The cases and stuff are cool, it’s too bad that people like me who are 65-70 or so won’t get even 1 case per 10 levels earned or something. This means that everyone else is going to get a super easy ride compared to us higher level players who have a thousand plus hours in the game. Not really a big deal, though.
  2. Fragger was a perfectly balanced merc and this is pretty common knowledge. Even with these other changes, I’m not sure why this is being done.
  3. Thunder 10 more HP? What about the miniature head hitbox and the backpack that blocks your sight of even aiming at his head.
  4. Going to be interesting to see Phantom finally receiving something as it’s been a long needed change.
  5. Fletcher basically got buffed. To appease the people who understand the gameplay they talked about lowering the radial damage, but really they are still catering to noobs.
  6. Bushwacker thing sounds cool since they nerfed the reaction time of the turrets. I’d rather have the reaction time back rather than this but not a big deal.
  7. Proxy mine throw speed was already too fast. You could hardly see it in most situations.
  8. Sparks and Sawbonez pack speed increase is very much appreciated, and I’ve felt for a long time they throw too slowly.
  9. Tough also felt “not great” at 33%. Hopefully this will help that out.
  10. Giving us less reduction of damage on Unshakable also helps Fletcher out more.
  11. Turning around on the spot no longer generates footstep audio (how many times is this going to be “fixed”?)
  12. molotov “fixes” = not 100% ideal but definitely the best I’ve seen since I started playing, which is great. Thanks so much. These have been a total disaster
  13. fixed blocking of phoenix heal pulse - ty so much
  14. Alot of the other fixes sound great. We shall see if they’re actually fixed as we’re all pretty accustom to “fixes” that aren’t actually fixed.

Also, I’d love to know who these players are who are playing in this private test server. If they’re contributing to the decisions being made for balance, they’d better be good at this game and understand how the gameplay works.