Agents, we are back with our final deep dive before phase 1 of Operation Overhaul hits the live servers and this week we are going in depth with major changes to the infiltration phase and the addition of AI spies.
Gameflow Change: Vault Printers
Ever since the launch of the game, a major piece of feedback that we have received was that the vault area was under-used in all maps since most matches blaze through the infiltration phase at great speed. To help remedy this, we are introducing a whole new part of the gameflow: Vault printers!
From now on, the golden doors of the objective room can no longer be opened with 10 intel. You now need a golden keycard to gain access, which cannot be found anywhere in the map before the vault opens. To get this keycard, you now have to find one of the keycard printers hidden around in the vault area and use 10 intel to start a print.
Once the print is started, the feedback on the printer will change, alerting nearby spies that a print has been started. After 30 seconds your keycard is ready to go and you can head out to the objective room to start the extraction phase.
We think this new addition opens up a lot of fun gameplay interaction as you can try to hide with a social interaction to protect your printer from afar or trap the surrounding areas to lay an ambush on unsuspecting spies.
Introducing AI spies!
Last but not least, we are introducing the first iteration of “spy bots” to the game. In this first phase, bots will be spread through the matchmaking experience to help new players get a better grip of the gameplay without throwing them into the lion's den of full player matches.
Only solo queues will have AI spies in this first iteration and the amount of them vs players will be bigger for beginner players to help them have easier matches to start their spy career. Still, AI spies will be able to fill out lobbies that are not full to keep things interesting and can also be added to private lobbies with the “fill with bots option”.
We want to be very clear that bots are very much meant to be easy enemies to deal with in their current iteration and are not meant to be a challenging element, please keep this in mind if you plan on playing with bots in lobbies. We will continue iterating on their behavior in the future.
Oh, one last thing. You might have noticed the tantalizing “sandbox mode” option in the private lobby screenshot. We are launching this new option that allows players to play with everything unlocked in private lobbies with the caveat that you will not gain any XP. We hope this opens up a lot of opportunities for fun community driven game modes and events.
Well, this is it for our series of deepdive on operation overhaul as the next step is fast approaching: Releasing the update in your hands. The entire team is looking forward to your reaction and feedback and we can’t wait to see you all on the field soon.