Explorers,
Our main goal during Early Access is to create Scavengers with you, and that means trying things out, listening to your feedback, and sharing lessons. In last week’s patch we wanted to introduce more incentives for PvP (by allowing you to loot enemy weapons on a squad wipe) and create more tradeoffs for running high-rarity loadouts (by increasing Scrap costs and reducing Scrap drop rates from caches).
After assessing the game state, looking at our weekend data, and listening to your feedback, we don’t think we quite hit the mark with our changelist. The changes below are to correct some of the side-effects from last week as we move forward to improve Scavengers.
Addressing Cheating and Exploits
Anti-cheat remains a top priority for us, as we continue to investigate and address reports of cheats and exploits. It’s also worth noting that our anti-cheat systems will become better with time as more data is collected in the wild and fed into these tools.
While we know it’s frustrating encountering a cheater, please continue reporting suspicious activity via Discord or the in-game system, as that’s where we have the best telemetry and can develop stronger, more comprehensive automated responses.
Looting Player Weapons
In the last hotfix, when a squad was eliminated, the players dropped their weapons. This was introduced to provide a reward for getting player kills. After listening to feedback and reviewing the data over the weekend, we realized that this didn’t meet the objective we were striving for.
Filling your loadout by crafting over the course of the session should be a rewarding pursuit. It’s cool and fun to sometimes shortcut that by finding a high-end weapon, but having them drop when a player is killed devalued that dynamic. In this update, we’re reverting those changes.
- Players will no longer drop weapons when a team is eliminated. This includes all weapons, not just signature weapons
That said, we still want to reward players for those epic player versus player battles. So we’re introducing a new change:
- Any time a player is eliminated, they will drop Scrap
- If a team is eliminated, they will drop bonus Scrap
Players are still rewarded for PvP encounters, but the emphasis is now on crafting their loadout build rather than picking up enemy weapons.
You can read the full details around the Scrap adjustments in the section below.
Scrap Adjustments
Last week we adjusted the amount of Scrap received from strategic caches to create more tradeoffs for running high-rarity loadouts. The optimal strategy was for teams to split up to unlock strategic caches while avoiding PvP fights in the early game. And once late game started, the scarcity of Scrap made it harder for teams to craft late-game items.
We want players to have access to Scrap at various points during the match. During the beginning, players can level up by the Scrap available in Strategic Caches and AI units. As players pivot to focus on other goals (crafting high tier weapons, gathering the most Datapoints, hunting down the opposing team) the ways to collect Scrap shift. With fewer large PvE sources in the late game, players can still collect Scrap through PvP and PvE sources.
PvP Scrap Source
A killed player will drop a small portion of the Scrap in their inventory which other players will be able to pick up
This Scrap penalty upon death ensures that we don’t inflate the Scrap economy throughout the match, and to provide a consequence for engaging in risky strategies. The amount of Scrap dropped should generally be a small percentage of the overall inventory value, unless the player is only carrying a small amount of Scrap. This Scrap penalty also adds a consequence to risky strategies as players lose a not inconsequential amount of Scrap.
The amount of Scrap dropped depends on the player’s shield level, with a bonus for eliminating the entire team:
- Common (White) Shield:
- Teammate: 25 Scrap for each death
- Last teammate (when team is eliminated): 150 Scrap
- Uncommon (Green) Shield:
- Teammate: 50 Scrap for each death
- Last teammate (when team is eliminated): 300 Scrap
- Rare (Blue) Shield:
- Teammate: 100 Scrap for each death
- Last teammate (when team is eliminated): 600 Scrap
- Epic (Purple) Shield:
- Teammate: 150 Scrap for each death
- Last teammate (when team is eliminated): 900 Scrap
PvE Scrap Source
We’re also adjusting the Scrap from PvE encounters. Scrap gains from AI is to bring the Scrap economy into a little more balance where player teams can accrue scrap through the natural course of play without feeling forced to pursue strategic camps to progress.
Here’s the breakdown:
- Non-Elite AI: Increased frequency, so Scrap will drop more often
- Elite AI: Increased frequency and 30% more Scrap is dropped
Crafting Costs
When crafting, we want to introduce strategic choice. Do you want to upgrade your shield or weapon first? Is now the perfect time to craft a Thermal Boost or save the Scrap for a vehicle?
When looking at the data after the hotfix, we realized that we might have tuned it a bit too far. We want players to have various options but not feel as though some items are completely off the table. We’re adjusting the Scrap cost for most of the weapons and shields. We’re not completely rolling back the changes but it should be slightly easier to craft higher rarity weapons and shields.
Here’s the breakdown:
- Uncommon Weapons decreased from 300 to 250
- Rare Weapons decreased from 600 to 500
- Epic Weapons decreased from 800 to 750
- There is no change to Legendary Weapons
- Uncommon Shields decreased from 300 to 250
- Rare Shields decreased from 600 to 500
- Epic Shields decreased from 800 to 750
We also changed the number of crafted Consumables from 2 to 1, which was a mistake. We wanted to heighten the danger of being stuck in a storm, but it didn’t work quite as expected. By limiting it to only one Thermal Boost, it prevented players from crafting items for their teammates. Scavengers is a squad game, so we want to still be able to help out your teammates in a pinch. We’ll look into other methods of heightening the danger when caught in a storm.
We are reverting this change, so get ready to craft two Thermal Boosts next time your team is caught out in a storm!
- Reverted: Increased number of crafted Consumables to 2
Salvage
We hear your concerns on the balance of end-of-match rewards—for now, we want to make it less punishing for those who die without extracting, as you can sometimes get ‘stuck’ on your progress trying to get more Salvage for your research, but unable to do so because you can’t make it to the endgame. There are meant to be other sources of Salvage and these will be introduced in future; however, without those in place, the end-of-match Salvage became the only way to progress.
This was never our intention, so we’re making some adjustments.
- Players can now keep the Salvage collected by all members of their squad, even if their team is eliminated or they are left on the planet.
Rejoice and enjoy your spoils whether you are eliminated, left on the planet, or successfully extract!
Respawn After Dropship Arrives
When the match comes to a close, all surviving teams scramble to make it to the Dropship and successfully extract. With the circle closing, those who die in the last few minutes of the match could respawn close to an enemy, or at enough of a distance that there is no way to make it to the Dropship on time. We also want to add more risk and consequences when players die—being unable to respawn accomplishes that.
Here’s what’s changing:
- We’re turning off respawning after the Dropship lands, so anyone who dies will be eliminated.
Bug Fixes
- Fixed: Crash when cycling through menus in the tutorial
- Fixed: Audio crash
- Fixed: Mini leaderboard missing during a match
- Fixed: Disabling fog during a match
This is only a small portion of the issues that we’re currently working on. Thanks to your reports, we’re still investigating and working to address the other issues found during Early Access. Keep an eye out for additional bug fixes in future updates.
Please continue sharing your feedback and thoughts with us - we’re grateful for all the reports we’ve had from everyone so far. They’ve helped us address key issues quickly and effectively at this early stage. This is all an integral part of the Scavengers Early Access journey and we hope you’ll continue to join us along in the months ahead.