Hey Squaddies!
We wanted to take a moment to address the recent HAB Spawn Proximity Disable Scaling rework, and the feedback we’ve been seeing from our player base on this matter so far. This changed the distance at which a Hab can be proxied by enemies (i.e. the HAB Spawn is considered overrun and becomes unspawnable). It will now scale by the number of enemies in proximity to the Hab. For example:
- 2 soldiers can proximity disable a HAB if they are all positioned within 20m of it.
- 8 soldiers can proximity disable a HAB if they are all positioned within 80m of it.
- Note: A minimum of 2 players is required to proxy a HAB. The maximum proxy range now scales up to 80m (this was previously fixed always at 30m).
You may have noticed that the v2.9 release notes received an edit after release and were updated to include the above details which, as we mentioned during the recent SquadChat, was originally slated for a possible release in Squad v2.10.
Several weeks ago we had planned a playtest for the reworked FOB Exclusion Radius increase, as well as the reworked HAB Proximity Scaling. As we specifically wanted to test both changes together, this was to be done in a separate playtest which included both changes and was a content sandbox separated from our then-upcoming, now live release of v2.9. The HAB Proximity Scaling was intended to be enabled for that playtest and then temporarily removed before the v2.9 release. This playtest was then canceled due to various technical issues, and FOB Proxy Scaling was to be temporarily reconfigured to be identical to v2.8.
At this point, an accidental merge of the FOB Exclusion Radius content, which still included the HAB Proxy changes, overwrote the correct values and resulted in the overhauled HAB Proximity Scaling being released with v2.9. We did not discover the change had slipped through until after the update had gone live.
This was a mistake in our internal release process, which led to the release of this feature earlier than intended and prior to the desired testing. We apologize for the discrepancy between our previous communications, the v2.9 patch notes, and the reality of what shipped in the update. A hotfix at this time specifically to revert these changes would be quite disruptive, and come with new technical problems of its own. This feature, while released prematurely, is meant to address gameplay mechanics that previously encouraged undesirable in-game behavior - lone wolf tactics being utilized to counter larger combat efforts with a FOB/HAB, and overall game pacing.
We know this is a large meta shift, one that the team has been planning to implement for a long time, and we are in the process of evaluating additional possible tuning. We encourage and appreciate all of your comments on this change, especially related to the way spawns affect the pacing and general battle cohesion. Our team is continuing to review player feedback, and this feedback combined with in-game behavior will help us further fine-tune these changes.
We will update everyone once we have had more time to review our tuning and all of your comments. Please keep the comments coming!
Offworld Out!