Global Agenda Version 1.36 has been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted.
Version 1.36 introduces significant modifications to the Agency-vs-Agency system, as well as a variety of cleanups and improvements to the previously released Sandstorm functionality.
Major Highlights
- Agency vs. Agency (AvA): Significant changes have been made to the Agency vs Agency gameplay to address player feedback. More information is below.
- Tokens: The daily limit on tokens has been increased from 2,000 to 6,000. The bank limit on tokens has been increased from 20,000 to 30,000.
- Consumables: Removed from PvP.
- Armor: Blue armor is now available for sale at the Mercenary vendor for tokens.
- PvP Matchmaking: Matchmaking on Mercenary PvP matches has been modified to ensure better class balance, both at start of match and when backfills occur.
- Raid Matchmaking: Raids now require at least one of each class. (Note: If you are making a pre-made team for a Raid, you must take this into account).
- Modifications: Unwanted mods may now be sold back to a vendor.
- Defense Raids: Team leaders may now not join the Raid queue if any member of their team is under Level 30. Raids now require at least one of each class on a team.
- Magmalance: Length of DoT has been reduced from 3s to 2s.
- Aftershock Launcher: Now increases Mechanical damage +25% (Previously it did not increase Mechanical damage, although the tooltip incorrectly read that it increased Mechanical damage +40%).
- Gammaburst Launcher: No longer does knockback. Reduces human target protections by 5% for 5 sec. It reduces mechanical protections by 20% for 5 sec.
- Hornet Drone: Health reduced by 25%. Damage reduced by 30%.
- Chat: All players are now limited on the rate at which they can add new entries into City, Looking for Group and Trade channels (previously limited only trial players). There are no restrictions for Local and Team chat channels. The Looking for Group and Trade channels are now defaulted to your All chat channel list.
- Personal Vandal Boost: Disabled in Open Zone.
- Map Cleanups: A large number of cleanups, bug fixes and map changes have been made to various levels in the game, especially the Sonoran Desert Open Zone, Special Ops PvE and Raid..
- Tooltips: A large number of tooltips have been improved.
- Login Screen: Updated to reflect the completion of Global Agenda: Sandstorm.
Server and Feature Availability
- The Global Agenda Servers are expected to be down on THURSDAY, AUGUST 12, 2010 from approximately 11:00 AM to 3:00 PM US Eastern (15:00 to 19:00 GMT) while the patch is deployed. These times may change. Follow GAServerStatus on Twitter for up-to-date server availability information.
- The first weekend AvA Zones will open on SATURDAY, AUGUST 14, 2010. The first weekday AvA Zones will open on MONDAY, AUGUST 16, 2010.
Agency vs Agency
- SEASON LENGTH: Seasons are now two weeks in duration.
- ZONE OPEN TIMES: For each major geographic region (Europe, North America, Pac-Rim), there will be one zone open on MONDAY through THURSDAY, and another zone open on SATURDAY and SUNDAY. Each zone will be open for 6 hours a day. For example, the "Weekday" North American zone will be open from 7:30 PM US Eastern to 1:30 AM US Eastern on Monday through Thursday. The European "Weekday" Zone will be open from 16:30 to 22:30 UK Time (17:30 to 23:30 CET) Monday through Thursday, with different zones open on Saturday/Sunday.
- HEX OPEN TIMES: Agencies will no longer choose when they are open for production (and thus for attack). Instead, each ZONE will be divided into six different segments. Each segment will be open for 1 hour of each zone open time. Segment 1 for the first hour, Segment 2 for the second hour, etc. By holding a hex in Segment 1 of the "Weekday" zone, you and everyone else will know that that hex will be open for production on Monday through Thursday during the first hour of your zone's open time. Note that each segment will have a varying number of hexes in it, with the middle hours of each zone open time having more hexes open than the first and last hours. Maps will cluster rare resources to ensure some hexes are more valuable than others.
- REWARDS: XP and Credits will be rewarded under the same formula as Mercenary PvP. Players in a Strikeforce that successfully win an AvA mission will receive tokens for the win. The # of Tokens will be based on the level of facility that was attacked. (Tech III facilities will earn substantially more tokens for a victory than Tech 1 facilities, and hexes with no facility will not have a token reward). The way items are produced will remain the same as it is today (at least initially).
- WIN CONDITION: Agencies will still win based on Net Worth. Each Zone will have its own winners. (Meaning, there will be 6 sets of winners for each season -- one for the Saturday/Sunday zone and one for Monday-Thursday zone in each of the 3 geographic regions). The Top 3 agencies in each zone will be rewarded. An Agency will be able to participate in multiple zones. However, they will only be allowed to have an HQ in one zone.
- ALLIANCES: Alliances are removed from the AvA gameplay. You can still form alliances and use alliance chat, but there is no other impact on AvA.
- BIDS: Bids remain blind, but you may now rebid every 15 seconds until bidding is closed.
- SOFT CAP ON PRODUCTION: Production declines as your agency owns more hexes. Most agencies will find that their production is maximized by staying between 9 and 15 hexes.
- LOCKDOWN TIMER: The lockdown time after a defensive victory has been reduced from 20 minutes to 10 minutes. For Defense missions, the lockdown time has been reduced from 20 minutes to 2 minutes in the case of a defensive victory.