New Units: Bucko and Ronin
We're introducing two new units: Bucko is an "improved" version of Bucky, recently recovered from an abandoned research facility. Apparently Bucky was criticized for not being accurate enough with rockets. The fix of course would be to put guidance systems in, making them missile
We're introducing two new units:
Bucko is an "improved" version of Bucky, recently recovered from an abandoned research facility. Apparently Bucky was criticized for not being accurate enough with rockets. The fix of course would be to put guidance systems in, making them missiles. But these systems take up space, which means less room for explosives. The tradeoff perhaps was not worth it, as Bucky seemed to be the more popular one. But still, perhaps Bucko has a use case.
Ronin is another recent discovery found in the remains of Asia. It seems similar in construction to a Butcher, but with lighter armor and energy swords allowing it to move fast. The only comparable we see in the western armies is the Assassin, but Ronin has no cloak ability. Another interesting set of tradeoffs that need testing in combat!
Big balance changes for Angel. Lots of help from the community here on balance and testing. We slowed down the Sniper attack, but also made it more powerful. It roughly comes out to the same damage, but you get fewer shots. Light units in front of heavier ones? Should be more options to defend against an Angel attack. We didn't just nerf her though--we buffed and reworked the Pistols at the same time. They now fire faster, and do a ton more damage--but they were also give extreme damage falloff. So it's your choice--get close with pistols or stay far away and snipe. We'll continue to see how this goes and continue to make tweaks.
Features:
New bindings for Next Loadout and Previous Loadout
Ctrl + Next Loadout key acts like Previous Loadout
mouse wheel zoom in and out (from Wastelands)
Bug fixes:
possibly fixed the Unit/AirMech stat flicker issue
fix a misspelling of "shield" in some Parts
fix replays not saving (meaning Spectate would not populate old games)
Balance:
Angel range restored to previous range (removed 8% penalty)
Angel Sniper mode fire rate cut in half (and)
Angel Sniper mode fire energy doubled (but...)
Angel Sniper mode fire damage doubled (for real this time)
Angel Pistol fire damage roughly doubled (but...)
Angel Pistol range reduced by 25%
Angel Pistol damage falloff starts immediately (so get close)
Angel Hyper Rail Overkill damage now +33%, 66%, 100%, 133% (was +50%, 100%, 150%, 200%)
Bombs build time now 3 seconds (was 4)
Bucky armor back to 30 (was 25)
T45 armor is now 50 (was 60)
T45 piercing is now 50 (was 70)
Balance, bugfixes and a few new skulls. There are some larger Strike features in development, including a rework to the team queuing systems and being in game together while looking for a group. Some of those changes were available for preview in the last few Canary builds, but need significantly more work, so for this update they are disabled while we work out the bugs.
We're rolling out some matching and ranking changes which go along with the new Season which just ended, this was part of some changes and improvements we are making to matchmaking and we wanted to have a clean break. We're currently debating doing 2 or 3 months for Seasons, and I'm personally leaning toward 3 so it can match the "seasons".
We wanted to intoduce a new lower priced way for new players to get VIP status, as the previous Starter Pack has a lot of currency in it but almost has too much if you are not sure what you need. Combined with the many requests to have another way to get the Nexus Warthog , and the Warthog being a new player favorite, this seemed like a great pacakge. So for $5 (USD, local currency may change) you get the Nexus Warthog (which means you can use Warthog), 1000 Diamonds, lifetime Silver VIP, and Boosts. Plus it doesn't overlap with the old Starter Pack, so anyone can pick it up and it's still a great piece of kit.
Lots of bug fixes and getting things in place for our new Tournament system, Diamond Roll improvements, etc. Read all about it below!
Big balance and bugfix patch! Along with the ongoing improvements below, initial features are in place for running our automated tournaments, and testing will begin this week. In fact, we have already run a few small tests, logged bugs, and will be making smaller incremental patches that focus on getting this brand new system working well.
