This update is focused on making combat more dynamic, interactive, faster, and more dangerous.
Change Log
General Changes
- New Subroutine: NUKE. Deals 7.5x the damage of a same-rating Disruption subroutine, but costs significantly more Heat. Using a NUKE will lock the assigned slot from being used for 20 seconds. You can slot multiple NUKE programs.
- Defense subroutines now have an internal, and independant, cooldown of 25 seconds per use. They will now be used as a means of trying to defend against enemy NUKEs, opposed to spamming them for "basic" attacks. Due to the greater cooldown, a single Defensive program cannot be used effectively to suppress repeated NUKES. You can slot multiple Defense programs.
- The Overdrive subroutine now has a 10 second duration, and an internal 20 second cooldown.
- Adding a duplicate program into the action bar will now lockout the slot for 20 seconds to prevent abuse of the internal cooldowns.
- Switching a program with an internal cooldown to a new slot will lock-out the new slot for 20 seconds, and unlock the old slot (assuming a normal program is switched into it). If two programs with internal cooldowns are switched, both new slots will be locked for 20 seconds.
- Natural Hardening now grants IC Shell of (Hardening * 2.5), with the Shell strength without the perk being (Hardening * 2). This will only affect new players, so existing characters may have a more powerful version of Natural Hardening,
- Updated several icons.
- Overwatch difficulty has been increased, and is based off an average of your Hardening, Response, and Masking. It does not factor in your Processor, skills or your programs. This creates a dynamic where you are able to "out-power" the difficulty of a run by increasing stats it doesn't factor in, and level up the run difficulty by increasing the stats it does factor in.
- Radically increased HEAT SINK power from (rating*1) to (rating*4). Firewalls generate (rating*2) heat. The HEAT SINK is supposed to nullify the danger of the Firewall temporarily, and give them some time to make some head-way against the IC, not always falling behind.
- Reworked MISDIRECTION subroutine. It will no longer add a delay to the trace equal to (2seconds + program_rating/2). Instead the delay is calculated at (program_rating / IC_rating) * 4seconds). This allows Misdirection scale into the higher levels.
- Updated the Knowledge Base with relevant changes.
Combat Changes
- Reduced the Code Shell strength of the Player and all IC by ~50%.
- Reduced the Matrix Cohesion of the Player and all IC by ~33%.
- Code Shells now regenerate to full strength, 5 seconds after being breached.
- SHUNT now prevents natural Code Shell regeneration for as long as it's active.
- Viruses will continue to affect IC even after their Code Shell regenerates.
IC Changes
- New IC subroutines: NUKE 1 and NUKE 2. Each deals 7.5x Disruption damage, and has a 20 second cooldown. NUKE 2 is on a seperate cooldown from NUKE 1, allowing certain IC to run two NUKEs back-to-back.
- IC with Deflect will no longer use to prevent your basic Disruption attacks, but will instead hold them in reserve to stop incoming NUKEs.
- BURN Subroutine now functions similar to a Virus. The IC needs to breach your shell to activate, but the DoT will remain even after your Code Shell regenerates.
- Rework Repulsion Field IC. Removed the Repair Subroutine (which was broken anyway), drastically reduced it's Matrix Cohesion, and drastically increased it's Code Shell.
- Guardian MK2 no longer has DEFLECT, but now has NUKE 1.
- Guardian MK3 now has NUKE 1.
- Firewall no longer has BURN subroutine.
Bug Fixes
- Fixed an Overwatch bug that was defaulting the starting "team wait time" to 1 second for the first step. It now starts at 120 seconds, and gets 10 seconds less per step. This means you have less-and-less time to perform the tasks.
- Fixed an Overwatch bug that was penalizing the player far greater than it should have for incomplete tasks.
- Fixed a possible exploit in Oracle where the %chance of success wasn't resetting after compiling. This would allow player to spend bits once, and "use" them multiple times by compiling repeatedly.
- Fixed several subroutines that displayed a blank image in the que.
- Fixed a bug where your running company costs and income weren't being saved/loaded between levels.
- Fixed an issue with Overwatch, where if you were in the target System before 11, and logged out after 11, you would be flagged as "dumped" and the run would end (even though the run never actually started). Note: the run won't begin unless you log-into the system between 11pm and 12am. Sitting in the system until the clock strikes 11 will not trigger the run to begin.
- Removed several debugging strings that would appear when transitioning levels.