New Features
- New Game Mode: Infestation (WIP)
- This new Co-Op mode supports one to four players, and the objective is for all players to defend the reactor for as long as possible
- The rules of this mode can be accessed by clicking the ‘Rules’ button displayed on Infestation Custom lobby menus
- Upload Cores and destroy Kavash to increase the team's score, and the team's rewards
- Protect the Reactor to maintain power to the Uplinks. Once the Uplinks are offline the mission is over
- The Kavash grow stronger with every wave. Destroyed Hives will drop Cores, but will also add events to future waves. Everything comes with a price
- Squad levels are earned by uploading Cores; keep those Uplinks busy!
- Rigs will not respawn automatically, so stay aware of your squad's health
- Spread across the map are powerups, automated defenses, and a healing zone to aid in your battles. Keep the score climbing and hold out as long as you can!
- Builder 2.0
- Builder view has been completely reworked!
- Players can now build their full 3-Rig squad in the same menu
- Pressing 1 2 and 3 will rotate the dropship to change the selected Rig, or the player can just select a Rig to change it
- Pressing Q W E and R will activate each Rig’s currently selected gear and play the appropriate active animations so you can preview each gear
- Animated Pilot portraits are displayed on the left side, for each Rig on which you click. Clicking this portrait will open the Pilot list, the player can also click the Rig in the builder to open the Pilot list
- There are options listed below the animated portraits, including ‘Alter Ego’, ‘Details’ and ‘Reset Gear’
- The ‘Test Loadout’ button has been changed to ‘Test Squad’ – this button is located in the right corner of the builder, next to the ‘Save Squad’ button
- Loadouts are now Squad-based! Think of your squad as a cohesive unit with complimentary gear, and save that loadout for whatever style of play you're looking to achieve. Up to 3 Squad Loadouts can be saved at a time and gear can be shared across saves
- Sandbox Mode (‘Test Squad’)
- Now supports all 3 Rigs loaded in at the same time!
Pilot Changes
- Turbine’s Special Move: ‘Stoke the Fire’
- Now deals a fixed 440 damage to Turbine over the course of the ability's 10 second duration
Gameplay Notes
- Triple Tank AI Teams have been moved to Medium AI difficulty
- 2v2 AI difficulty is now set to Expert
- Boss Minions now have a higher selection priority for right-click attacks than Bosses
- Units will now initiate their casting much closer to their maximum cast range, instead of pathing unnecessarily close
- The Drafting Sequence has been updated
- Draft Background scene has been updated
- Dropship animations have been updated
- The Draft Sequence will now pick the last Squad Loadout that was active in the Builder
Miscellaneous Notes
- Dropzone now supports multiple languages, including: German, French, Italian, Spanish, Russian, Polish, Turkish, and Portuguese
- Players will be required to set their account name when they log in for the first time. This is to ensure a smooth transition for Closed Beta accounts linking to Steam
- Revised the matchmaking algorithm to better prioritize opponent skill when selecting a match
- A ‘PLAY’ button is now located within all menus except the Options Menu and the Train Menu, allowing the player to easily enter the Play Menu from multiple areas of the game
- The Play Menu has updated and now includes the following options
- Quick Match: Places the player in Multiplayer Queue
- Versus: Opens a Menu with Versus AI, 2v2, Ranked Play (Coming Soon) and Tournaments (Coming Soon) – Versus AI will allow a player to select an AI difficulty and start an AI match, and 2v2 will open the Custom Lobby menu with 2v2 options automatically set
- Infestation (New Mode!): Leads to Solo Infestation and Co-Op Infestation – Solo Infestation will immediately start a Solo Infestation game, and Co-Op Infestation will open the Custom Lobby menu with Infestation options automatically set
- Custom: Opens the Custom Lobby Menu
- The Watch Menu has updated (WIP)
- Now features a new UI design with loadouts used, the map the match was played on and Map Objectives
- The player can now sort the replay list for 1v1 matches and 2v2 matches
- A list of each replay is located on the right side of the graph, and clicking a replay will open a more detailed list of the match on the left side – the player can then choose to watch the chose by clicking the ‘Watch Match’ button located under the match details
- A Match Spoilers option has been added, and enabling it will reveal the final score of the match, as well as which player(s) completed each Map Objective
- Hovering over the gear or pilots in the match details screen will now show gear and pilot hover cards
- An Intro video has been added that plays when the game is launched
- Clicking the screen or pressing the spacebar will show a ‘Skip Intro’ button above the intro video
- If the player doesn’t move the mouse for 5 seconds, the ‘Skip Intro’ button will be hidden
- Main Menu scene has been updated and now features the dropship within a hanger – the dropship will fly out of the hanger when entering draft sequences
- A credits list has been added to the Options Menu
- Palm Rockets now has a chain FX
- Crazed Banshee’s ammo size has increased and the FX and animations have been updated to make it more visible
- Capacity Overload now uses the same targeting decal as Laser Lens
- Surge Amplifier now uses the same targeting decal as Laser Lens
- Various gear FX has been updated
- Various gear icon art has been updated
- Font styles have been updated
- A lighting pass has been done on all maps, and lighting has been improved with High Quality materials turned off
- A profanity chat filter option has been added to the Interface tab of the Options Menu
- Global Chat now plays SFX when new messages are sent
- There is an option to turn off the Global Chat SFX located in the Interface Tab of the Options Menu
- Replays can now be fast forwarded up to 16x
- Team and Player colors are now consistent in all modes. 2v2 renders both blue players as blue, instead of one as green in observer mode
- New gear cards in the Builder now say ‘NEW’ instead of ‘!’
- New Blueprints in the Crafting Menu now say ‘NEW’ instead of ‘!’
- New Player Portraits are available
- Daily Bounties are now available as Transmissions
- Game update messages (Level up events, tower captures, etc) have been removed from the Onboarding missions
- Custom Vision Tower preview pictures have been updated
Bug Fixes
- Fixed an issue where Turbine’s Glob Launcher was using Acid Cannon’s FX in the Builder
- Fixed an issue where Turbine’s Glob Launcher was not correctly playing its projectile FX in game
- Fixed an issue where the length of the match history list would change depending on the number of games displayed on the page
- Fixed an issue where chat options were not scaled correctly on 4k resolution
- Fixed an issue where Turbine’s Special Move ‘Stoke the Fire’ was dealing more damage to Turbine than intended
- Fixed an issue where Rigs with two identical software slots could equip a default software in one slot and the same non-default software in the other slot
- Fixed an issue where chats were not auto-scrolling properly
- Fixed an issue where the ‘First Blood’ objective reward was listed as ‘1 points’
- Fixed an issue where players could not attempt to re-enter a password protected lobby if they closed the ‘Enter Password’ pop up
- Fixed an issue where Pulverizers auto-attack SFX would stop playing properly when overridden by other SFX
Known Issues
- There are known issues with words bleeding outside of their bounding boxes for every language other than English. Fixes are on the way
- Locking observers slots in Custom Matches only works when both slots are empty
- The Private Match setting only works when the game is already created, so someone can join in-between
- Hive Link does not have a cast ring around hives to show where the ability can be cast – fix incoming soon
- The ‘Easy Pickings’ achievement does not count Hives killed by a teammate towards the goal
- Jovians earned in Daily Bounties and Level Ups do not count toward the ‘Kingpin’ achievement