This update see some major updates to the combat 2.0 system, in addition to a dozen or so bug fixes and a bunch of misc. tweaks and adjustments. The goal of the update is to make combat more interactive, and make the player's actions have an immediate effect (instead of just swinging and missing most of the time). I think this is a great middle ground between the old system, and the 2.0 system.
Change Log
- Breach programs now permanently reduce IC Firewall instead of adding Tags. Reductions to player Firewall is semi-permanent, being restored when you leave the system. This is akin to a crippling wound.
- All programs now add a Breach Tag when they are blocked by the Firewall, effectively weakening, and wearing it down. This is akin to exhaustion.
- The only IC with Breach subroutines are now Blaster and Maelstrom. They will weaken your Firewall until they have a 2-point advantage, and then shift to Disruption subroutines.
- Breach Tags are removed when combat ends and your Firewall has a chance to recover.
- During combat, you can use the Fortify action to remove up to 3 Breach Tags. This can be done on when your Avatar is off cooldown, and not executing a program. There is a button on the HUD to the left of the action bar, or you can use the Spacebar to Fortify. Most IC will also Fortify, with a 33% chance per Breach Tag they currently have.
- Breach Tags are no longer automatically healed.
- "Attack" success chance has been rebalanced from base 85% to 50%. This seems like a sharp decline, but now that "failing" an attack inflicts a Breach tag, follow-up attacks will have a greater chance of success. This also helps to enforce the importance of the Fortify action.
- Player skill weight in attack tests has been capped at 1.5 times the program rating. Previously, for example, a rating 2 program with a skill of 6 would have an effective rating of 8. Now using the same numbers, the effective rating would be 5. This helps to maintain the viability of higher level programs and mitigates an issue where players could spam fast, low-level programs to wear down the IC Firewall and start dealing damage.
- Player Disruption, Static, Daze, Spam, and Misdirection tags have a chance to "cascade", inflicting up to 2 additional tags. The chance is based on your Program rating and Virtual Combat vs the HOST level.
- IC Disruption and Spam have a chance of cascading based on the HOST level. There is a 10% per rank of inflicting a second tag. If a second tag is inflicted, there is a ((10% * rank) -50%) to inflict a third tag. If a third tag is inflicted, there is a (10% * rank) -100%) to inflict a fourth tag. Using this formula, IC can currently inflict upwards to 6 tags per program execution at high level, with each extra tag adding an extra -50% to the odds.
- Significantly increased the CORE rating of all IC.
- Doubled the BODY cap on all motherboards.
- Reduced the base cost of BODY upgrades from $25 to $15 (with a 30% increase per rank).
- Changed program Element "Require-Disruption 3+" to "Require-Disruption 6+".
- Reduced base movement speed by 25%.
- Increased system crash time from 10 seconds to 13 seconds.
- The intro-story scroll now auto-skips one second after the voice stops and no longer waits for the player to click.
- Valentino's response to your name in the Interview phase now lasts 2 seconds instead of 1.
- Adjusted the tutorial window size, and text-wrap settings to prevent the sentences from being cut off.
- Fixed several spelling errors.
- Fixed a bug with the Enter Net button that would sometimes cause it to not fire.
- Fixed a bug with the Recover Stolen Data operation preventing it from displaying the proper system logs, and being completed.
- Fixed a bug with Traps not applying tags properly.
- Fixed a bug with the Ravencore rank progression causing promotions too early.
- Fixed a bug with Analyze subroutines not revealing hidden data caches.
- Fixed a bug with the initial salary and quota being incorrect the first day.
- Fixed a bug that was only penalizing the player $135 instead of $270 for a "demotion" at rank 1.
- Fixed a bug that was preventing the story missions from appearing in the list.
- Fixed a bug that could cause Ravencore Attributes to exceed 5.
- Fixed a bug that allowed you to over-repay your loan.
- Fixed a bug preventing "Efficient Design" from discounting your program properly.