Hello Cleaners!
This is it - our first Major Patch! As mentioned in the previous F-Corp Memo, we wanted this patch to focus on a few major feedback points we’ve observed over the first month of the game being live - Character Progression, Fairness of Death, Death Gameplay and Solo Play balance are our major areas of focus. This patch should greatly increase a new player’s overall experience and allow a returning or dedicated player lots of fun new rewards to chase.
Here is a high-level explanation of changes meant to tackle the above points:
F-Corp Employee Benefits
- Cleaners will now earn F-Corp Credits after each successful mission.
- F-Corp Credits are awarded based on first time completion and achieving ranks for each game mode of a level. Additional Credits are awarded for performance stats such as washing walls, binning items, and not dying to incursions.
- F-Corp Credits can be spent at the new Employee Benefits Terminal in the lobby, and can be used to purchase three categories of items:
- Gear Upgrades - Stackable, permanent stat increases such as nozzle washing power and range, holding more small items, throw strength and more
- Seminars - One time purchases that grant conditional bonuses such as extra washing strength when playing solo, extra washing range during an incursion and more
- Cosmetics - New categories of cosmetics such as Faceplate Color and Suit Material, as well as additional brand new Suit Patterns
- Cleaners now have a Cleaner Rank based on their lifetime total of F-Corp Credits earned.
Incursion Talents
- Starting at Cleaner Rank 5, Cleaners now have access to an Incursion Talent Terminal in the lobby.
- Cleaners may select exclusive Incursion Talents that grant powerful new abilities when the Player has Sigil Power.
- While mutually exclusive with each other, these talents may be re-selected at any point with no cost.
Incursion Tuning and Situational Awareness
- We’ve tuned several aspects of Incursion (details below) to be less unfairly punishing.
- Through the Employee Benefits Seminars, we’ve added a new passive that allows Cleaners to detect offscreen threats such as Incursion Grenades or Spikes.
Death Gameplay
- Cleaners dying in Multiplayer will now create a “Revive Orb” above their body.
- Any surviving Cleaners can spray this Revive Orb to revive the deceased Cleaner on the spot, restoring their Sigil Power stacks.
- If Incursion ends without a successful revive, the Cleaner fully perishes and respawns as a new F-Corp employee, per usual.
Solo Gameplay
- Two new Seminars available at the Employee Benefits Terminal specifically empower Solo Cleaners.
- The Seminar “Team Rightsizing” grants a +25% multiplicative benefit to washing power when playing Solo.
- The Seminar “The Me in Team” grants an additional “hit point” to Solo Cleaners during Incursions, allowing them to not be wiped by a single mistake.
- These Seminars are available at Cleaner Rank 1.
We’re super excited about these changes and are eager to hear what you think of them. Please leave us feedback here or on our Discord.
For returning players: F-Corp Credits will be awarded to you automatically on starting the game, based on the levels you completed and the max rank you’ve achieved on each of that level’s game modes.
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There are a variety of other supporting changes to these, here is the full detailed patch note list:
Major Gameplay Changes
- Players now earn F-Corp Credits after each mission, spendable at the new Employee Beneifts Terminal in the lobby
- Players can now learn Incursion Talents, available at the Incursion Talents Terminal in the lobby after reaching Cleaner Rank 5
- Dead Cleaners will now have an opportunity to be revived in Multiplayer if their allies spray their Revive Orb during an Incursion
- Dead Cleaners are now able to be watched in the death cam, with your dead body being targeted by default after dying to help understand what killed you
- Holding Pickup will now continually pick up objects when targeted
- Holding Throw will now continually throw objects from the Cleaner’s pockets
- Briefly show the Cleaner’s current inventory count near the reticle when the Cleaner picks up or throws a small item
- Added an onscreen message when any Cleaner has items in their pocket when pressing the highlight button with less than 5 items remaining
- “Hardcore” Mode is now just “Hard” mode and no longer has its lives-based loss-condition - Hard mode is now centered only around its more difficult attack patterns. This design was old and wasn’t super meaningful, but may return in the future.
Incursion Tuning
- Incursion “Grenades” kill radius now better matches their ground decal indicator, whereas previously they could kill a Cleaner who appeared just outside the ring
- Incursion “Spinners” are now brighter in color
- Incursion “Spinners” now have a more accurate hitbox width along the length of the spike
- Incursion “Spinners” have had their hitbox length reduced slightly so Cleaners are no longer killed by a minor tip tickle
- Incursion “Spinners” now extend more slowly upon initial spawn
- Incursion “Spinners” height lowered to make it less ambiguous whether you can crouch under them (you can’t)
- Incursion “Lasers” now warms up much more slowly, to give Cleaners a better chance to avoid their spawn
- Incursion “Lasers” now have an intermediate VFX phase when warming up
- Incursion “Lasers” now play a sound during their warmup
- Incursion “Grenades”, “Sweepers” and "Duck Shooters" will now cancel their warmup sound if fully cleaned while warming up
- Incursion “Jump Jets” VFX recolored to blue to hopefully make them more inviting
Tuning
- Level Rank timings have been re-tuned. In general, Star Employee times are faster, Gold times are about the same and Silver times are a little slower. This change is to account for a higher tier of player cleaning throughput with Upgrades, Seminars and Talents.
- Slight reduction in base wash power for Line and Circle Nozzles (They’re much more powerful now once upgraded)
- Slight diminishing returns in power afforded by Sigil Power at higher stack count (To account for Sigil Power being overall more powerful at baseline with Upgrades)
- Translocational Anomalies time-to-explode after being destroyed increased by 1.5 seconds
- Translocational Anomalies now have VFX to help indicate their range after being destroyed
- Improved accuracy when picking up small objects when those objects are on a blocked object such as a table
- Blood spray from death now attempts to spray 15 blood washables, up from 10
UI
- Added a brand new Level Complete screen
- All UI screens now have sounds for navigation
- New Nametags have been added
- Added a photosensitivity warning to the start of the game
- Added a Known Issues section to the Bug Report screen to help with certain issues
- Suit Customization screen has been reorganzied
Cosmetics
- Renamed Secondary Color to Pattern Color to reduce confusion
- Added new category of Cosmetics: Suit Material (Primary and Pattern)
- Added new category of Cosmetics: Faceplate Color
Bugs
- Fix for players being killable when loading into an in-progress game during Incursion
- Fix a bug where players could throw small items through walls when pressed against the wall
- Fix for the camera sometimes spinning wildly if the player has a Controller connected
- Fix for a player shadow being visible where they died
- Fix a bug where players could die after a level was completed, particularly at the end of 1-08 Entity
- Blood spray from death now more consistently sprays its intended amount of blood washables
- Fixed a bug where Cleaners could briefly collide with objects they were throwing when running, falling, or throwing straight down
- Fix for Incursion Sigils showing “Last washable remaining” indicators when pressing Highlight during an Incursion
- Fix for the words “Escape!” not being present during the 1-08 Entity final sequence
- Fix for Suit Colors and Patterns not following a logical order in the customization menu
- Fix for Spray Shields spawned by Incursion attacks being incorrectly sticking through walls for remote clients
- Fix for remote clients not hearing the sound of a frag grenade being thrown
- Fix for blood splattering the walls of the pool in the Duck Sanctuary
- Fix for the doorway in 1-08 Entity highlighting when pressing tab
- Fix for Incursion “Sweepers” in Hardmode 1-03 Incident being slower than intended
- Fix for large grate in 1-04 Traps being incorrectly blocked by a body
- Fix for D-Force cupboards in 1-07 Tunnels not being blocked by their supported items
- Fix for long walkway in 2-02 Pools not being blocked by its supported ducks