Hello inmates,
It’s almost time for patch 1.10! If the last changelist you read was 1.9, be sure to check out this catch-up post detailing the hotfixes we pushed over the course of the last week.
Patch 1.10 will come to Steam Friday, March 4 (expect maintenance from 11 AM EDT - 12 PM EDT) Don’t miss our devstream during the maintenance! Tune in here: https://www.twitch.tv/darwinproject
UPDATE: We’ve rescheduled the maintenance and devstream to 1 PM – 2 PM EDT on May 4.
See you in the arena!
Show Director Progression
There are some big changes in here, so a little bit about the reasoning first. Being the Show Director is a big responsibility: the skill and personality of the Show Director has a lot of impact on the contestants’ play experiences. With the progression system, we’re rewarding experienced Show Director with more Powers and influence over the match while giving newer Show Directors the ability to learn the role with more basic Powers before they become familiar with the mechanics and grow into their style.
From now on, when you play a Darwin Project match where there’s a Show Director with access to Powers such as Manhunt, you’ll know that they earned the ability to use them by playing several matches and maintaining a high Rating throughout. Here's what's involved in the progression system:
1. The prerequisite to play as the Show Director is now Level 10 instead of 5 matches played.
2. Show Directors will begin with a limited amount of available Powers and unlock new ones as they play. Some Powers can be unlocked and equipped multiple times, whereas others can only appear in the Power Deck once.
3. All Powers have an associated Show Director Rating requirement. The higher the Power’s potential to influence the match, the higher the required Rating the use it.
4. The Show Director role will become unavailable if players fall below a 2.5 star Show Director Rating, but can work their way back up by playing matches as contestants
Power Deck Customization
We’re really excited about this improvement since it’s one of the most requested Show Director features, and it’ll create a lot of new Director styles and combinations. Show Directors will be able to browse available Powers and insert them in their Power Decks as they see fit. The Power Deck is customizable from the main menu as well as from the lobby, so the Show Director can decide on the Powers they’re bringing into the match after getting to know the contestants a little bit!
New Show Director Powers
Give Wood (Cost 1): Channel your inner Wood Delivery Guy and give a chosen player 3 Woods.
Expose (Cost 3): The selected player and their nearest opponent both receive a clue on each other
Telepathy (Cost 5): All players can hear one another’s voices
Blood Moon (Cost 5): All players track one another
Electro-mania (Cost 5): Activate all Electronics
We look forward to hearing about your experiences with all these new Powers! We’ll be polishing them over the next few weeks, so don’t hesitate to share your feedback.
Shop
Many of you have been asking for ways to support Darwin Project now that it is free to play on Steam. First of all: thank you. We didn’t expect to see so much of this feedback, and it means a lot to us that you care. Or maybe you just really like shopping for clothes? That’s cool, too.
We’re introducing a simple in-game shop with just one purchase option to start: the Supporter Pack. Here’s what it contains:
As a reminder, alternate clothes and weapon appearances will never come with in-game advantages.
Keep an eye out for more stylish items in the near future!
Gameplay
- The Show Director Manhunt Power can now only be used when at least 4 players are alive and at least 2 zones remain
- In Private Matches, Show Directors now have the ability to start the game in Solo or Duo Mode (teams are chosen at random)
- Decreased visibility for players hidden in a tree
- Hiding in a tree will now cause it to shake and emit sound effects
- Arrows used to kill Deer will be retrievable from the body again
- Shortened the Axe jump attack damage window by 30 milliseconds
- Tweaked Axe animation timing to improve fluidity and feedback in combat
- Changed the default Mute All key from Y to M
- Increased the amount of Wood salvageable from dead players
- Aiming your bow no longer consumes stamina, but it does slow down its regeneration
Optimization
- NEW 5/04: Decreased loading times
Visuals
- An icon will now appear next to your mute icon when you are talking
- Updated the match end screen
- Added an option to watch Behind the Scenes videos from the main menu
- Corrected the Revenge Cloak description in the Crafting Wheel
Leaderboards
- You must now play at least 50 matches to appear on the Arrow Accuracy, Headshot Ratio, Average Rank, Average Number of Kills, Win Ratio, and Show Director Rating leaderboards
- Leaderboards will now reset at 11:00 AM ET (3:00 PM UTC) instead of 3:00 PM ET (7:00 PM UTC) to correspond with our (semi) regular maintenance time. Resets will still occur every other week on Tuesdays, with the next Steam reset being May 8. The remaining time before resets will be displayed as a countdown above the leaderboards.
