Exciting times ahead as we come roaring out of the major safehouse base building milestone and careening back into the regular order of updates, improvements, new content and more! With Update #84, we've raised the level cap by 5 levels, added 2 new Power Level 3 armors for sale from the newest contacts, improved Soldier's Blast Radius, and fixed a huge heap of F10s from the community!
A big thanks goes out to everyone reviewing, playing and posting. Hit F10 if you see anything odd, we are hard at work improving and fixing.
Level Cap Rises
With Update #84 and the big expansion of the safehouse, it is the right time to lift the level cap to 25. You'll gain an additional +1 Level Point per level. The next cap raise will include additional Talent LImit allowance.
For those players who have been grinding past the current cap, you will find that your XP is kept and used. You may suddenly find your mercs are Level 22 or even Level 25 if you've played out enough missions. Enjoy the new points!
Blast Radius Buffs
The Soldier's Blast Radius Talent has had its upgrade tree simplified a bit to be a single row updates and gained some additional buffs. The new improvements push the max range you can gain for any type of thrown grenade, medi-cloud or shock mine to +8m up from +6m. Also, the total damage buff is increased by extra +20%.
Those who invest their Level Points in grenades ... go BOOM.
New Armors
We've added 2 new Power Level 3 options - one Heavy and one Light - for armor. These can currently be purchased from your new Fixer Contact. The heavy armor features 3 Protection Points, making it awfully hard to chip down to its low %s and the Light armor keeps the same 2 Protection Points but shifts its max and min Protection % upwards.
Check out the Underworld Hub to meet some new power players and expand your available services.
Safehouse Improvements
If a room generates Tokens and it has the maximum number on the shelf, the tag for that will go green now, making it easier to spot. This makes it easier to know where you've got room to spend.
We fixed a bug with the Simstream Trainer that was adding more than +10% Stress pre use. When a merc goes in, now they get a flat +10% Stress. They gain a percentage % of XP of all missions run while they are in the trainer, so it is to your benefit to stick them in there and then run as many missions as you can for the +10% Stress.
We simplified the filters in the Inventory / Equipping / Market screens to be more fitting to the task you are doing. We're working toward further simplification that will help focus the screens specifically on the task at hand. Previously, these screens were trying to each do everything and it was making them much harder to use. We're excited for this big step forward and to keep pushing these into better shape. Also, this resolves a number of bugs about different Programs not appearing in inventory.
APU / CPU Spike Clarity
We've improved the text around APU and CPU spiking to be more clear about which one affects which. APU affects the real-world meat-space Sec AI while CPU affects the Matrix host's Q-Sec Tally. We know we still have work to do here as the actual displayed Sec Level in the HUD in both meat-space and matrix does not reflect the drop in Tally, so this is going to keep confusing players until we improve the UI. Coming soon hopefully.
Recruit Durations
We've double the duration on all recruit offers from story and Sibling Job. You'll have more time if you need to make adjustments to your Barracks now to accommodate these new mercs. Furthermore, we've added an option to continue to delay your recruit choice after the Sibling Job if you had to delay directly after the mission was over.
Overwatch and Targeting
We're working on some of the most populous F10s in buckets. This update fixes a ton of minor issues with targeting, movement destinations and Overwatch. We have fixed some inconsistencies with targeting, the character's reaction and rotation after targeting not being consistent and the attack Talent sometimes not always being selected correctly.
Also, we've fixed issues where the direction of your Overwatch cone could shift when taking reaction shots. With this bug fixed, Overwatch correctly keeps to the exact range and direction you set and never changes during reaction shots.
Finally, we've made some progress crushing down on the bug that can cause the game to get stuck in slow motion during an Overwatch reaction shot. We've found 2 possible causes, patched them and added additional logging so that any future F10s about the issue will help us pin it to the wall.
This was actually related to the same reason that sometimes unarmed characters or prisoners would loop for a while and then suddenly go into a T-Pose. That's fixed now too!
Hates and Desertion Tags
If you were having any issues with Hates or Deserter backstory tags preventing you from going on missions that seemed to make no sense, this is resolved.
Sticky Toggle Highlights
Your choice of playing with highlights on or off, by default using the (H) key, is now remembered between levels and level retries. Thanks for the F10s!
v1.6.9 - 5/15/2024
- Increased Level cap to 25
- Added 2 new Power Level 3 armors available from new Fixer Contacts
- Increasing benefits of Soldier's Blast Radius grenade buffs: extra +2m range available, extra +20% Dmg
- Fixed Soldier's Blast Radius upgrades to be a single progression, last upgrade costs 2 points
- Fixed/improved matrix text for APU / CPU Spiking to be clearer about each (APU=real world Sec Tally, CPU=Matrix Q-Sec Tally)
- Fixed issue with Desertion or Hatred sometimes blocking a character from an inexplicable mission
- Double duration on all story-based recruit offers including Sibling Job
- Added continued delay option when considering recruit from Sibling Job at safehouse
- Simplified/improved filters in inventory and market, removed duplicate "Can Sell" filter vs. "Ready to Equip/Sell"
- Corrected icon for Reaction attribute boosts in Class skill tree to match roster Attribute
- Fixed issue with Simstream Trainer adding too much stress, adds +10% Stress per use, run more missions for more XP per Stress
- Fixed price displayed in file set grid to show the base price of the possible file set result
- Fixed log for group buffs misreporting number of buffed by -1
- Fixed bug where Overwatch cone could change rotation after each attack
- Fixed issues with prisoners or other unarmed characters randomly going into T-Pose
- Fixed level issues where you might be able to see a skybox beyond edge of level