The New Boston streets are buzzing with rumors of updates, rumors of new bristling weaponry and mods, rumors of new UX improvements, rumors of more! With today's update, we've made some exciting balance changes to Contact Limit Breaks, rolled out 3 new service upgrades for Gun Runners, added 2 new Contact Types that purchase Item Blueprints and completed a series of UX upgrades and Steam Deck improvements to help everyone using floor Talents, inspecting matrix terminals or checking the pause menu for keybindings.
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Contact Limit Breaks: Go for Services!
We've made a big balance chance to how Contact Limit Breaks picks what to upgrade. Too often, the Limit Break would end up with a less exciting upgrade which simply wasn't as fun or exciting. Now we've pushed the weighting to be more in favor of taking Service Upgrades if they are available. If a Gun Runner can upgrade with their Influence to sell you better guns, then they are going to be significantly more eager to pick that choice from the weighted table. They still have their other options - Traits and temporary Traits - and more will be coming online too, but prioritizing service upgrades can really help ensure that you're getting more actionable Limit Breaks for your Contacts early on.
We've also fixed a bug with how the Contacts were drawn for Limit Breaks. They were always being pulled in the same order, basically sorted by their age, and the young ones were always picked first if they had a break. This led to some Contacts who were even created during new game sort of being stuck "at the end of the line" ... looking at you, Potato :eyes:.
Gun Runner Service Upgrades
To pair with the improvement to Limit Breaks focusing on services, we've added 3 new service upgrades with Update #105:
- Gun Runners can upgrade their Street Guns service up to level 4, which adds 8 total new weapons at Power Level 4 across the spectrum of types.
- Gun Runners can also upgrade their Weapon Mod service to Power Level 3 which adds 7 new mods, focusing on ARs, Snipers, Blades and with one for Shotguns.
- Imported Weaponry from your Warner-Braun connected Gun Runner can upgrade to Level 4, at which time, you'll be offered a new Blade and new Assault Rifle in addition to what was already there.
More Blueprint Buyers
We've further expanded the options for selling Blueprints - with Dopers and Bio-Tech Researchers joining the pool that is now interested in purchasing Item Blueprints. This should cover a wider range fo groups that have different starting characters or made different story choices so far.
Floor Talent Clarity
Talents that target a specific location on the floor - like Lure, Glitch, Slashslide and Overwatch - have long lacked the standard display for Talents within the game. We've adjusted that with this update to include the AP bar (so you know you're spending 0, 1, or 2 AP, etc) as well as the keybinding hint (click for desktops or (Y) as default for controllers). This is a big help especially for players new to the game to understand how this class of Talent is used compared to others, and even more helpful for controllers.
Photo Mode Remembers
Photo mode now correctly remembers the last location and exact rotation between uses. So, if you hit (P) and setup the perfect shot, you can hit ESC - either by accident or because you want to go back to playing - without losing "your shot." Hit (P) again and the photo mode will resume exactly where you had set it up before.
Control Scheme & Steam Deck Improvements
With Update #105, we've fixed an issue where (A) or (spacebar) was being used to trigger terminal inspection. This didn't cross very well with planning and executing a movement to the terminal as you might trigger inspection by accidentally hovering over it. We've switched this to (H) or (right-stick click) which is usually Toggle Outlines, but in the context of hover over a terminal, triggers inspection.
Steam Deck Updates
For Steam Deck and controllers, we've also improved the transition from one scheme to the other by only showing the controls that are bound in the game's pause menu. We've also tuned up the detection of the switch to be faster and more accurate. We're still working on situations where it can get stuck in one mode or another but this is a marked improvement.
We've also hidden the controller white dots cursor whenever a window comes up and fixed a bug where playing with a mouse and Edge Scrolling on didn't work great when swapping to a controller.
Simstream Token Display
The Simstream Trainer gathers tokens to allow you to respec your crew. If you're using them, then knowing when they are ready or sitting idle is important. The Simstream Trainer had missed having the token display added but now that is fixed. Thanks to the community for the F10s on this!
v1.7.21 - 7/5/2024
- Big increase in weighting to pick Service upgrades whenever available for Contact Limit Breaks
- Improved sequencing of Contact Limit Breaks - some Contacts were stuck waiting in line
- Gun Runners can further upgrade Weapon Mod service to PL 3, adding 7 new mods across AR, Sniper, Blade, Shotgun
- Gun Runners can further upgrade Weapon service to PL 4, adding 8 new weapons across types
- Improved W-B Imported Weaponry service upgrade to include new AR and Blade at PL 4
- Additional Contacts - Dopers and Bio-Tech Researchers - are interested in buying Item Blueprints
- Added missing AP bar and keybinding hint for Talents that target floor - Lure, Overwatch, Slashslide, etc
- Added token tag for Simstream Trainer to show its token generation
- Improved keyboard bindings for renaming / text box windows - now correctly ENTER to save
- Improved photo mode - remembers that last position, rotation and restores it when toggling in with (P)
- Correctly refreshed right side of inventory/market if you sold the last item
- Fixed bug with some filters and sorts (highest level gear) if you started removing weapons/armor
- Fixed issues with mouse cursor + edge scroll when using a controller