Hello everyone!
We’re back with a new (but smaller than usual) update.
We’re hard working on many different core aspects of the game at once and to avoid issues or instability during that phase, we’re releasing a ‘tweak & balance’ update. Rest assured that new content will be added in the next update.
There wasn’t a playtest phase and we’re not highlighting any particular change this time around considering the scope of this update.
We’ve been less active on the Steam forums and news recently because some of the people involved in the process have been less able to focus on that, but things should go back to normal in a month. We’re sorry for that and we hope you don’t miss us too much.
We’ll list some of the systems we’re working on here but we’ll be releasing a developer news later down the road to give you more details on certain of these.
Items - We’re trying out several ways to make them more interesting both in terms of choices and effects. In the process we’re also trying out to induce kind of a more ‘roguelike’ side to them by increasing how they influence replayability.
Perks - While we said we were happy with where the perk system stands right now, modifying other systems such as Items require us to also tweak the perk system a bit in order to make it fit properly to the changes.
Performance - Like we said before, many ingame systems are going under revision and re-coding to improve the game’s overall performance.
Multiplayer - We’re working on the different ‘smaller’ systems during a run as well as the overall public matchmaking system (being able to find a brobot directly in the game).
Basecamp - For a long time the basecamp has been left aside of our priority list but it has now risen. We started iterating on the visual side of it, to give Max and the guardian the workshop they deserve. We’re also thinking of different ways to improve its navigation and ease-of-use.
Text System Rework - While this is a boring topic since it won’t affect anything you actually get to experience in the game, we thought we’d list it here anyway as it’s a lengthy process that actually needs some production time. This will help us improve the game performance as well as enable us to more easily add new languages, keywords, fancy descriptions and build small systems to automatically track value changes between different versions (and therefore write even more detailed patch notes!).
Game Content - Aside from that, we’re always trying to bring more content to increase the game’s variety in the form of weapons, enemies, bosses, affixes, perks etc. And while none made the cut this time around, you’ll definitely get some new toys in the next update.
That being said, here is the full list of changes for the 0.8.3 update:
0.8.3 Patch note
Gameplay - General
• Added a new ‘Ping’ action
• For now you can only ping weapons, which will highlight and share the weapon to your brobot in multiplayer
• Added an ‘anti-kill-steal’ system in multiplayer: dealing at least 40% damage to an enemy will automatically trigger any of your ‘Takedown’ effects when the enemy is destroyed, regardless of whom destroyed it
Developer’s Note: These are just the first steps towards building a better multiplayer experience, which will then enable us to implement the public matchmaking.
• Increased the frequency at which enemies drop weapons by 20%
Developer’s Note: We eventually want rewards such as weapons to be granted at specific locations to avoid breaking the flow of the combat but this new system is still a work-in-progress and in the meantime we need to increase the amount of weapon choices you encounter.
• Cells fade duration increased from 8.5s to 9s
Developer’s Note: We noticed that we were often just a little bit too short on time to gather cells when playing with a gamepad. Obviously just changing this value won’t fix the issue but we’re still thinking hard about how the cell system works. We want more time to think about it so in the meantime this is the change we made.
Developer’s Note: We also went back on our will to modify how snipers / scoping and cell gathering works. Scoping will still gather cells from afar.
• Reduced Trail Bots movement speed by approximately 30% and increased their health by approximately 20%
• Trail Bots now have a ‘Sprint’ mode triggered when you shoot them or get too close to them. It highly increases their movement speed
• Several levels have new types of Trail Bots: Speedy Trail Bots and Beefy Trail Bots
• The base critical ratio of non-critical weapons and effects reduced from 130% to 125% (triggering a lucky critical with your Rocket Launcher will therefore only deal 25% extra damage instead of 30%)
Developer’s Note: This is mostly a change made to have a critical value which is more consistent with the other game’s values rather than a balance change.
Classes
Engineer
Drone
• Updated Drone behavior to cumulate their old behavior with the new one we implemented a few updates ago, they should be more aggressive than before and spend more time in the midst of the combat rather than above your robot’s ears while still closely following you
• Increased base Drone damage and health but reduced the efficiency gained from Perks and Perk Upgrades, their final power level is approximately 20% higher than before
• Drones now only take 60% damage from Bosses’ attack patterns
Scrap Blaster
• Projectile speed increased from 4200 to 7000
Commando
Rocket
• Damage increased from 70.0 to 75.0
• Radius increased from 1.85m to 2.0m
Weapons
Scratch Rifle
Primary Fire
• Damage increased from 9.0 to 10.0
Alternative Fire
• Damage increased from 40.0 to 50.0
• Radius increased from 1.25m to 1.5m
Kramer
Primary Fire
• Damage increased from 12.0 to 14.0
Blunderbuss
Primary Fire
• Projectile speed increased from 7000 to 9000
Blast Ball
Primary Fire
• Projectile speed decreased from 10000 to 9000
Power Gloves
Primary Fire
• Damage increased from 15.0 to 16.0
• Impact force increased from 11.0 to 12.0
• Firerate increased from 3.57/s to 4.0/s
• Pellet amount decreased from 2 to 1
• Critical ratio increased from 1.25 to 1.5
• Range increased from 12.0 to 16.0
• Projectile speed increased from 7000 to 17500
• Heat per shot increased from 6.5 to 10.0
Alternative Fire
• Damage increased from 64.0 to 66.0
Cryo Launcher
Primary Fire
• Damage increased from 12.0 to 15.0
• Projectile speed increased from 5000 to 9000
Blast Palms
Primary Fire
• Projectile speed increased from 3600 to 4000
Blast Rifle
Primary Fire
• Damage increased from 9.0 to 9.5
• Projectile speed decreased from 12500 to 9000
Blast Shotgun
Primary Fire
• Range increased from 9.0 to 12.0
• Projectile speed decreased from 12500 to 9000
Blast Sniper
Primary Fire
• Damage increased from 44.0 to 47.0
• Critical ratio increased from 1.75 to 2.0
• Projectile speed decreased from 40000 to 17500
Dual Blast Guns
Primary Fire
• Projectile speed decreased from 20000 to 17500
Flak Cannon
Primary Fire
• Damage increased from 15.0 to 16.0
Alternative Fire
• Damage increased from 56.0 to 58.0
Blastgun
Primary Fire
• Projectile speed decreased from 10000 to 9000
Ball Cannon
Primary Fire
• Projectile speed increased from 6000 to 12000
Laser Saw
Primary Fire
• Damage increased from 32.0 to 40.0
• Projectile speed increased from 7000 to 10000
• Heat per shot decreased from 14.0 to 10.0
Alternative Fire
• Damage increased from 24.0 to 30.0
• Impact force increased from 10.0 to 15.0
• Heat per shot decreased from 5.0 to 3.0
Blast Arbalest
Primary Fire
• Damage increased from 37.0 to 39.0
• Range increased from 12.0 to 16.0
• Projectile speed increased from 7000 to 10000
• Heat per shot decreased from 11.0 to 10.0
Blast Minigun
Primary Fire
• Damage increased from 7.0 to 7.5
• Projectile speed decreased from 5500 to 4000
Affixes
• ‘Affinity’ now increases all stats instead of only one specific stat, all weapons previously having a specific affinity have the new ‘Affinity’ (all stats)
• ‘Dense’ now named ‘Thick’
• ‘Cadence’ no longer reduces accuracy
• ‘Sharp’ no longer reduces firerate
• Increased ‘Explosive’ explosion radius from 200 to 300 and reduced bonus damage from 50% to 30%
Perks
• ‘Low Rider’ class upgrade for Guardian and Recon now only grants an additional jump and no longer increases your movement speed
• ‘Robo-Coffee’ upgrade of ‘Favorite Weapon’ no longer increases your movement speed but only your weapons’ firerate
Recon
• ‘Shadow Strike’ now only increases melee and weapon damage instead of all damage
• ‘Sentinel Gatling’ upgrade of ‘Sentinel’ no longer reduces Decoy’s accuracy
• ‘Night Shroud’ resistance bonus reduced but now it also increases your melee and weapon damage
• ‘Tactical Mark’ now makes your next weapon shot mark all enemies hit with a short cooldown instead of marking the closest enemy in sight when deploying a decoy
• ‘Double Spread’ upgrade of ‘Tactical Mark’ now only has a chance to spread the mark to another enemy instead of spreading it automatically
Commando
• ‘Robzerker’ now increases your damage instead of your lucky critical chance in addition to increasing your resistance
• ‘Fighting Scar’ upgrade of ‘Robzerker’ removed
• Added a new upgrade to ‘Robzerker’ named ‘Lucky Scratch’ - it increases your lucky critical chance while Robzerker is active
• ‘Boom Spark’ upgrade of ‘Light Spark’ now reduces spark firerate
• Removed ‘Spark Ricochet’ upgrade of ‘Light Spark’
• Added a new upgrade to ‘Light Spark’ named ‘Spark Rain’ - it increases spark firerate
Engineer
• Moved the ‘Oiled Blaster’ upgrade from ‘Triple Bombs’ to a class upgrade
• ‘Triple Bombs’ now reduces the damage of your melee but each bomb deals full damage instead of reduced damage when hitting the same target
• ‘Triple Bombs’ explosion radius decreased from 500 to 375
• ‘Scanning Process’ upgrade of ‘Triple Bombs removed
• Added a new upgrade for ‘Triple Bombs’ named ‘Surprise Load’ - it grants you a chance to instantly recover your melee cooldown after using it
• Added a new upgrade for ‘Triple Bombs’ named ‘Well-Fed Bombs’ - it increases perk’s damage and explosion radius
• ‘Menu Extra-Blast’ upgrade of ‘Triple Bombs’ now increases the cooldown of your melee
• ‘Drone Bubble’ now triggers also when using ‘Love Bond’
• ‘Safe Space’ upgrade of ‘Drone Bubble’ now increases the invulnerability duration instead of triggering when using ‘Love Bond’
• Removed ‘Oiled Cannon’ upgrade of ‘Drone Bazooka’
• Added a new upgrade for ‘Drone Bazooka’ named ‘Fairy Dust’ - it increases damage dealt by ‘Drone Bazooka’
• ‘Vaporize’ upgrade of ‘Elemental Split’ now grants a chance to execute enemies on first hit against them rather than any hits
Items
• ‘Wheel’ now also increases reload speed in addition to firerate
• ‘Saw’ no longer increases movement speed but only melee damage
• ‘Lubricant’ now increases movement speed instead of reload speed and mod. Cooldown reduction
• ‘Nail’ now also increases accuracy in addition to lucky critical chance
Basecamp
• We brought back the Weapon Level-Up machine
• Modified the behavior of the level-up machine, now sets a weapon to the current power level of the stage you’re in, the cost is scaled depending on the level difference with the weapon’s current level
Developer’s Note: We read your feedback on that side and while we’re still unhappy with this mechanic we felt like it would please you to have it once more (and it wouldn’t hurt the game). We’re of course still looking at a more elegant way to make you able to carry a weapon over several levels without having it getting underpowered.
Enemies
• Enemy homing missiles now stops homing the player when entering close range, this should make them a bit more fair and easier to dodge
• Reduced enemies’ and bosses’ explosive attack patterns damage by approximately 20%
• Reduced enemy sniper damage by 20%
Boss
• We tried to make bosses cleaner, fairer and overall funnier in this update and Dr. Turret underwent the most changes
Dr. Turret
• Replaced its laser pattern with another one which should make it more predictable and should make the boss look less silly
• Replaced its blaster attack with a triple laser attack
• Added movement prediction to its mortar attack
• Increased area range of the mortar attack
• Removed its shield spawning pattern
• Updated or polished several of its visual effects
Lady Bug
• Reduced its laser bar attack firerate
Judgeball
• Added back the rocket attack during its artillery pattern
• Reduced the amount of side projectiles during the artillery pattern but increased the amount of laser bars it shoots
• Its bouncing balls now explode after a few bounces
Diggy Mole
• The drill part of Diggy no longer deals damage during its missile attack pattern
• The drill part now has a danger feedback to indicate that it will deal damage during its shockwave attack pattern
Billy Boom
• Billy Boom now has a melee attack when rushing you at close range
• Reduced the damage dealt by its laser attack
• When down, Billy now gets up after triggering its lever
Levels
• Added new level chunks to Fields and Energy Center which should make them feel more randomized
• Improved and updated environment in the Act 2 levels
Interface
• Ammo count in the weapon box (bottom-right) now replaced by an infinite sign when under an infinite ammo effect
Audio
• Updated the ‘Loading Complete’ sound
• Updated and added several other sounds
• Fixed some issues when multiple sounds of the same category play in the same time
Bug Fixes
• ‘Stim-Bubble’ no longer increases melee attack speed, as it shouldn’t have in the first place
• Discrepancies of weapon mods between client and server fixed
• Stunning, slowing or freezing a boss should properly slow it down under all circumstances
• Controller haptics are now enabled by default