Good afternoon agents,
With the second closed alpha over we wanted to once again share some of the takeaways the team has and what is already changed and being working on. Please note that this is NOT an exhaustive list, and does not include everything that is and will be worked on. With that said, let’s dive in!
To help you navigate everything, this brief is split up into the following sections: Gameplay, Bugs, and Etcetera.
Gameplay
Thanks to our alpha agents, the team was able to verify some items that are now in a better place, compared to the first alpha, and areas where more work was still needed.
- Addition of an Out Of Cover Outline
- Out of cover enemies will now have a slight red outline around their silhouette. This is mostly to help newer players with identifying threats and to make team fights more readable at a glance.
- Hardsell
- Some windows in Hardsell are now openable, allowing Agents to make some quick escapes, or entrances
- Agents will find that these windows open from the inside, and that some new windows are closed from the outside, preventing some areas from being as quickly reached at the start of the game.
- Spy Checking
- The team is investigating changes to make NPC spy checking more risky as well as tackling specific Agents ability to do so with impunity (Larcin)
- AI behavior is being tweaked to make visually finding Agents in the field a bit harder
- Third Partying
- Agents picking up a rivals spy cache will now get 25 health, to improve their fighting chance against being jumped by other rivals right away
- The team is adjusting weapon sound ranges so it is less likely you’ll hear them from across the map
- Vault Terminals
- Work is being done to see how Agents can be incentivised to pursue multiple vault terminals in solo play
- Jump Fatigue
- The jump fatigue is in the early stages of being reworked to make sure players understand more about what is happening and that it feels more natural
- Agent Changes
- With the major TTK (Time To Kill) changes of Alpha 2, the team is continuing to look into what balance adjustments are needed to make sure all agents, weapons and abilities are deemed useful.
- Example: Yu-Mi is having some work done to make her feel better in player hands
- Gadgets
- Gadgets are having a cooldown time rebalancing. The goal is to reward players that go back to pick up their gadgets instead of simply destroying them all the time.
- The Spyglass can now revive from afar in team mode.
Bugs
- Social Interact fixes
- Sitting will now work reliably and won't make agents sit in the air, sideways, or jump up in the air when coming in and out of it.
- Found and fixed an issue that would lead to shots that would not connect when they should with projectiles such as Yu-Mi’s sling and Larcin’s thrown pistols.
- Another priority issue the team is tracking is Mimics not showing up on briefcase scans
Etcetera
Items outside the direct game loop are also being adjusted to help improve the experience for Agents.
- Currency earning from matches is continuing to be adjusted as we study how fast players are earning it
- Agents will now see agent progress per match instead of only from leveling up
And the team is continuing to look into other feedback and reported issues from our alpha agents including:
- Round start issues where agents could spawn too close to each other leading to unintended super early conflicts
- Several weapon mods are being considered for reworks to help make them feel more unique
- Continue to improve on features for streamers
To the agents that helped us with this alpha test, we can’t thank you enough! Please keep letting us know what you think and any bugs you encountered via Discord and the Forums. And something, we know many Agents have been waiting for, the team has compiled a Top 10 Leaderboard from the second alpha!
Some familiar returning agents and some new ones make up this list! Good job to all Agents, and don’t worry, we hope to be able to share more details about your next mission soon if you didn’t make the list this time: More testing in the near future!