This patch is absolutely huge for us, as we’re releasing the Agent class system, expanding all Agents to 36 skills, implementing a number of new types of skills, and fixing several longstanding bugs. We’ll cover the main changes very briefly here, but please read the full patch notes for details, linked below.
The Agent Class System
The Agent Class System changes the game in many fundamental ways. First, each Agent will now have access to three classes, each consisting of a pair of Elements, instead of six unassociated Elements. Deploys of either Element will contribute to a shared XP pool for that class, allowing for skill purchase decisions that feel much more interesting over the course of a match.
Classes list is linked in the full Patch Notes Below.
New skill types
With 1.9.4.3 we’re releasing a number of new types of skills available. While this is a huge drop of skills, nearly tripling the number of skills that we have, this isn’t the full set of skills we have planned. We’ll be releasing additional skills over the next several releases. The new archetypes of skills in 1.9.4.3 are:
On Round Start: These skills provide small bonuses that stack up incrementally, increasing at the start of each round.
On KO: These skills reward combat, stacking up strong bonuses that snowball on KOs, in addition to the +3 Elements you already receive for KOs
On Shard collect: These skills reward Shard collection, giving small bonuses in addition to the +1 Element you already receive for Shard collection
On Survive: These skills are active when your agent is in Survive mode.
Shardstorm Changes
We’re also implementing Shardstorm Changes to help the end of the matches feel more interactive. In round 20 Agents will become empowered, gaining bonus attack damage every few seconds. The Shardstorm damage will still begin in round 25, but it will now cut through armor. We expect to iterate on these changes a fair bit going forward as we test out different game modes and see if we’re happy with the way things end up.
1.9.4.3 Smaller Features
{AccordName} Titles created and awarded as Broker level rewards
Leaderboard look/feel improved - contract value added as sortable column
Rehauled match lobby for the Agent class world
Display Agent ranks in match lobby
Various notification improvements (time/date, mark all as read, time zone fixes)
“Mute audio out of game” now selectable
Clicking on your Agent’s portrait in a match will now bring up your powerup screen
Agent contract value increase now shown in Agent rank up notifications
Display skill cost on Agent Index
Improved many in-game notifications
1.9.4.3 Bugfixes
Improve processing speed of end-match rewards / missions API call
Visual fix for loaned Agents taking up Vault slots
In-match cooldown icons now display tenths of seconds
Flavor messages now come through during Prep Phase as well
Improved leaderboard calculations API call
Agents on Survive now recalculate their destination every 1s - this should result in more responsive survival pathing in all spots except along the edge of the map. We still have work to do on this front.
1.9.4.3 Known Bugs
Tutorial 1 calls out the incorrect Elements of Titus
READ FULL PATCH NOTES!