Hi Troopers, BadFox Eddie here. We’ve got some exciting things coming this patch that I think you guys are going to love!
- Shoot-em-up (SHMUP) Buffs - Stacking damage/bullet and utility/stat buffs that individual Troopers will be able to pick up from devices that drop in from the sky
- Trooper Controls and Commands - Our controls 2.0 and Trooper movement updates add some interesting ways to customise your playing experience and move your troopers around the map.
- Map Updates! We’ve got a new map, Military Base! We’ve also tweaked the layouts of all current maps to accommodated SHMUP Buffs
I’m really excited to see what you guys think of the new core gameplay mechanic, it’s been a lot of fun to make and test out for the upcoming patch!
SHMUP Buffs
A new core gamemode feature is being added: shoot-em-up buffs. These consist of stacking damage/bullet and utility/stat buffs that individual Troopers will be able to pick up from devices that drop in from the sky:
Here are the details:
- Troopers can only have one buff type at a time and they lose all of their buffs when they die, so make sure to watch who’s got what on each team to know who to kill or stay away from.
- Buffs will be dropped on the map at regular intervals, assuming that previously dropped buffs have been collected.
- Both teams will be alerted prior to their landing and will be able to compete to deplete the buff pod’s health bar
- The first team to deplete the health bar will have a buff dropped for them and the first trooper of that team to walk over the buff will be awarded it.
Be aware that high damage troopers can steal the buff, so watch your surroundings and you might have to prioritise enemies given the situation.
Damage/Bullet buffs
Tier 1
Ricochet Bullets - If a Trooper's bullet hits an enemy Trooper, a secondary bullet will spawn on impact, shooting at an enemy within their max gun range from the affected enemy Trooper.
Tier 2
Piercing Bullets – if a Trooper hits an enemy Trooper their bullets will pass through them up until their maximum gun range. It will also spawn a ricochet bullet in the same way as tier 1.
Tier 3
Laser Bullets – an additional laser beam will be fired, in addition to their piercing projectile, which covers their whole gun range. Like the previous tiers they are blocked by environmental objects. It will also spawn a ricochet bullet like tier 2, however, the shot will be a piercing bullet.
Utility/Stat Buffs
Tier 1
Chonky Shot – Trooper bullets are now 25% larger.
Tier 2
Slow Down Shot – if a Trooper’s bullet hits an enemy Trooper, the enemy’s movement speed will be slowed by 20% for 1 second, this effect does not stack.
Tier 1 effects will also be applied.
Tier 3
Speed Up Shot – if a Trooper’s bullet hits an enemy Trooper the trooper who fired the shot will have their movement speed increased by 10% for 1 second, this effect does not stack. Tier 1 and 2 effects will also be applied.
Trooper Controls & Commands Update
We’ve given you a couple of new ways to command your second trooper around the map!
Custom Controls 2.0
We’ve gone through some clarity and UX exercises in our controls menu to allow you guys to be able to change and customise your preferred controls more easily to your playstyle. You can now change key bindings more freely, binding already used keys to new bindings. You will have to have all keys bound in the menu and save them before being able to continue.
We’re also changing controls to allow you to set if your ‘relative’ controls are for movement, abilities, or both. E.g. you could keep your abilities as set or default, while having your movement commands switch as you switch between Troopers. We heard from a number of players that this was a feature that they wanted, so we’ve pushed this through to give you guys a better playing experience.
Trooper Commands
Auto-Follow - By pressing the G key (default keybinding), you will toggle an auto-follow command for your secondary trooper. The Trooper will follow you until they die or are given a new movement command. This will help you keep your team together without having to micro-manage them as much -- but be careful, this means that your troopers will be easy to predict and very vulnerable to AoE abilities.
Patrol Paths - You can also draw paths for your Troopers to patrol.
- Press your move command key (default Q or E), and drag your mouse across the map.
- When you release the move command the Trooper will then path along that line.
This makes moving your troopers around the map a lot more fluid, meaning you can perform pincer maneuvers on the way into the fight without having to stop firing.
Animations
Florp, Flintlock, and Fang all have updated in game and menu animations to give them more character.
Control Point Clarity
We’ve also removed the outside circles from control points to really focus on the capture zone themselves. We found that some new players were standing in the outer regions of control points expecting to capture them. They were originally placed to cover more of the map so players had an easier time orienting themselves around the map, however, with the addition of the mini-map this feature has now become redundant.
Map Layout Changes
Every map layout has been adjusted to accommodate Buff drop locations
Map Release:
The Military Base: “The most secure training facility this side of the moon, this well-equipped base was the central hub of the Military Faction – that is until other Factions started appearing. New recruits come here both to practice and fight off invaders, so challenge yourself to the obstacle course, hunker down by the pillbox and bunkers, or battle over the tank depot.”
Sarge:
Sarge was doing a bit too much damage and was a bit too hard to kill in our last patch, so we’ve nerfed cluster grenade and suppressive fire to bring him more in line with the other Troopers.
Cluster grenade
- Shots per super meter: nerfed from 20 to 30
- Base damage is staying the same, however;
- Empowered inner damage nerfed from 150 to 130
- Empowered outer damage nerfed from 170 to 150
- Range nerfed from 35m to 22.5m
- Cooldown nerfed from 12 to 15 seconds
Suppressive Fire
- Damage reduction reduced from 60% to 45%
Skull Crusher:
We found that Skull Crusher’s supercharged Anchors away was a bit lack-luster, so it’s been given a buff.
Anchors Away
- Supercharged Anchors Away has been buffed from 240 damage to 320
Nebular:
We found that Neb was being a bit too strong when paired with certain Trooper’s like Sarge and Crow. With the coming SHMUP buffs we saw this getting out of hand, so he’s been slightly nerfed to reflect the upcoming changes.
Focus
- Damage buff nerfed from 50% to 40%
- Super charged buff nerfed from 65% to 60%
Scorch
We’ve found that a lot of players were running away from oncoming friendly Rain of Fires, so we’ve added some visualisation before the fireball lands to help players understand if it’s dangerous or not.
Rain of Fire
- After rain of fire has been cast a friend or foe outer area visualisation has been added to give players more feedback as to what team it belongs to.
- Super charged Rain of Fire damage buffed from 60 to 80
Florp
Forp’s been given some number tweaks to the damage and healing parts of splosion, his empowered damage was waaaay too high and his initial damage was a bit low. With the Flintlock healing nerf we’ve also bumped his healing amount we’ve also increased to super charged version of splosion’s heal to compensate.
Splosion
- Damage buffed from 180 to 220
- Super charged damage nerfed from 300 to 250
- Super charged heal buffed from 400 to 450
Transfusion
- Lifesteal nerfed from 55% to 45
- Super charged lifesteal buffed from 55% to 60
Tharlin
We found that the last nerf to tharlin was a bit too much, he’d lost the capability to burst people down as effectively as they have more warning that he’s comin. We’ve buffed his damage to reflect this. Now if you land the hit you’ll not only feel like you’ve earned it, but you’ll also do a lot more damage!
- Damage buffed from 110 to 150
Flintlock
Flintlock was being really annoying to kill, his mysterious liquid was healing him for too much too often and the damage reduction from Double O’d was a bit too strong, so we’ve made some changes to reflect that.
Mysterious Liquid
- Base heal amount nerfed from 280 to 200
- Empowered heal amount nerfed from 380 to 320
Double O’s
- Damage reduction nerfed from 25% to 15%
Bug Fixes:
- "Would you recommend the game?" prompt has now been reverted to the original method - no longer as spammy
- Fixed bug where Troopers were not adhering to their designated ‘hits to charge super charge bar’ numbers.
Known Issues:
- Audio Slider bug not currently changing audio in game – we’re really trying to fix this, it’s just throwing problem after problem with a 3rd party plugin we’re using.
- Troopers may be flung uncontrollably around the map. It seems to be linked to movement abilities, like suppressive fire or fetch, but currently unknown what exactly is causing it.
- Troopers sometimes fire multiple projectiles.
- Pink/purple text appears when your team or the enemy team capture or start to take a point.
- Sometimes troopers are unable to use abilities. (switch characters to get around this issue)
- Escape key doesn’t always exit out of menus. (switching tabs fixes this)
- Trooper sometimes stand up when they die and don’t play their animation
- Tharlin can sometimes deploy multiple sets of mines
- Lightning sometimes keeps on triggering in the squad select screen
- Sometimes Troopers models disappear and only their overhead UI can be seen.
- Occasionally ability aiming reticles are being left after using the ability
- 3D models of abilities are being left in the air. The abilities are still going off, it’s just a a copy of the ability 3D model is being left in the air.
- Occasionally abilities can be fired off twice.