The artificial sun is setting in the New Boston dome and the team is gearing up, checking weapons, shining up the cyberdeck. It's time for another heist, it's time for another update. As we have hammered through roadmap milestone after milestone in June and into July, we've piled up an astronomical number of F10s. Small bugs, important bugs, little suggestions, big ideas. Currently, we are working on finalizing the Matrix Tutorial milestone and building out new content for the game -- but alongside that effort we're laying down some Major Bug Lt. Squash. Let's see how many we took out tonight!
If you're enjoying the constant improvements to the game, we hope you'll take a moment to review the game. There is no better way to thank our small team for their efforts, and you can always edit it later to say "I can't believe they just kept updating" =D
Lure and Stuck AI
We've fixed two big AI issues with this update. The first is with Vanguard's Lure. If you were using it close to an enemy, sometimes they might move to it and then just keep "Hunting!" through it and beyond, often leading to your Vanguard getting caught in the act. This isn't the promise of the Talent ... so we fixed this behavior to be sure that - even when thrown very close - the enemy will go to the Lure spot and end their turn their as they should.
The second important bug was related to enemies skipping their Turns after being attacked. In these cases, you'd shoot an enemy and they'd rotate toward you and ... then on their next Turn they would do absolutely nothing. There are a number of circumstances that have to happen for this to occur but it's been plaguing some enemies and making them look really daft.
Vision System Rebuild
Cameras, Radar Arrays and Motion Detectors were the first 3 security devices ever added to the game. They've built up a lot of historical bugs and with Update #121, we've taken the time to rebuild a lot of their guts to address these bugs en masse in a single go.
- Cameras and Radar Arrays will now see multiple characters who pass through them on the same Turn. They had an old issue where they would only trigger one per Turn, period. Not great. Now, they will trigger once per character spotted per Turn - fair and challenging. So, if Ghostman and then Jellybean run through the camera back-to-back, you'll be properly dinged twice now.
- We've fixed issues with Cameras and Radar Arrays not being very accurate at spotting your mercs while they are rotating between turns. Now, their sweep is much more successful at spotting anyone who is seen during the movement.
- Cameras and Radar Arrays could also refuse to see a body for a while. They would usually eventually spot it, but it could lay in plain view for a bit - especially if they were just turning back on from being diabled - and not spot it.
- All vision systems have been improved to better handle smoke - being inside the smoke especially, which they were not great at following the rules.
This fix has closed out a huge number of old F10s about Camera, Radar Arrays and Motion Detectors. A big thanks to everyone who submitted F10 tickets!
Proximity Mine Fix
Proximity Mines were taking damage from the explosion point into consideration when rolling their damage, like a grenade. But they trigger when you enter their zone, so you were always at the max distance ... so, the damage was always low. They have been corrected now to deal full damage which is still Ballistic Damage and so reduced by armor. Still, expect these to have a bit more bite, especially if they have switched into lethal mode.
Overhead Noise Warning during Attack
While we've had useful attack warnings in the hovers over enemies' heads for a while, they were only visible while idling or planning a move and disappeared if you planned an attack. This could make it difficult to remember if a specific enemy was going to hear your attack and even more opaque if you changed weapons during your targeting - "who is going to hear?" was not an easy question to answer.
We have now added the same warning icon over all enemy heads during the attack prep phase where you are checking out accuracy, considering your shot and might change weapons or Talents. This gives you clear guidance on who will hear the attack without having to hit ESC or (B) to back out and check the overhead warnings again.
Better Clicking in Class Tree
The class tree is now far more mouse-friendly, allowing you to click on another node at any time during your journey to upgrade a node. If you're looking at Red Dot's upgrades, you used to have to click the close button or hit ESC before you could click on Coordinated Charge. Now, the click goes through correctly and you can one-click to open another node and check it out.
Timestamp Corrections
The saved slots in the game were using an inconsistent timestamp compared to the main save and it was overall just confusing. We've resolved this now and the timestamps should all be correct, to your timezone and useful. Let us know if you have any issues.
Improved Hospital Rooftop "Plan B"
With Update #121, we've made some improvements to the looting and enemy spawning on the rooftop. We're working our way steadily through the game to improve enemy starting locations, patrol paths and loot groups to make sure everything is varied per play through and feels good. With this update, the loot is a bit more reliable on the very level so there are less changes of "spikes" in value and the surprise arrival of the T-REX may also arrive in some different points and positions which can make things moderately different every time you restart. It is still the first level, so we've not going to hard on this one.
v1.8.41 - 8/6/2024
- Fixed issue that could cause AI in combat to skip their turn stupidly
- Fixed issue with Vanguard's Lure where, if thrown close to the enemy, the might keep hunting that same turn
- Rebuilt vision systems (Camera, Radar Array, Motion Detector) and fixed tons of old bugs
- Improved all vision systems reaction when inside smoke
- Improved ability of vision systems to spot separate characters moving through them on same turn
- Improved ability of vision systems to spot characters when they rotate between turns
- Improved combat logs produced by vision systems when spotting characters
- Improved ability for vision systems to spot dead bodies
- Added new overhead hover on enemies when targeting, showing who will hear the shot/attack
- Fixed issue where proximity mines always did low damage - watch out!
- Fixed District HQ starting position that started inside camera view angle
- Fixed building in District HQ that you could sink into the wall when taking cover
- Fixed issue with last time played date being incorrect in saved game slots
- Fixed saved game name would not correctly match if you renamed Knight in new game
- Fixed issues with Crafting cost being incorrect and blocking the start of crafting
- Fixed issues with Start Crafting button being enabled incorrectly on sub-Blueprints
- Fixed issue trying to click Talents but click going through to Lootbox (etc) underneath
- Fixed Grenades were bouncing off Refact wall from Vanguard's class tree
- Fixed sometimes hotkey graphics were too small for the hotkey ("Shift")
- Renamed market filter category from "Blade" to "Melee"
- Improved click handling in class tree, when viewing upgrades can still click on other node to focus
- Fixed issue with Connection % dropping to 0% at the start of a turn and not getting dumped from Matrix
- Fixed issue with Health-over-Time healing not always updating the initiative track correctly
- Improved description of difficulty options for saving games and death modes
- Improved enemy position, patrol variability and loot in Hospital Rooftop level ("Plan B")
- Fixed oddity with Send to Detox button sometimes saying Send to Destresser