Greetings, Prospectors!
Community Team here, ready to finally dive into some of the juicy details of Season 2 and what tomorrow's big update will bring to The Cycle: Frontier.
Thank you everyone for playing and providing feedback over the course of Season 1, it has been quite the ride so far and we're hopeful that this new update will further invite our players into to the depths of uncertainty, mystery, and madness that Fortuna holds. We appreciate your engagement, your patience and your interest in our game and we hope that the Depths of Tharis Island will make you feel as immersed as we do.
Over the course of Season 1 we have learned many things and squashed a lot of bugs. Players have made faithful allies, fearsome foes, and shared hilarious clips. They've been chased out of the jungle by Marauders and experienced epic adventures as they walked the soil of Fortuna III, all while hunting for fame and fortune with the Cycle looming over Fortuna III.
With all of that in mind, the 2.0.0 update brings new content, a new map called Tharis Island, a new Fortuna Pass with new Prospectors and amazing skins, balancing changes, a rework to Marauders and more! Let's jump right into all this new stuff, starting with our first good ol' Seasonal Wipe.
The maintenance will start at 10 AM CEST / 4 AM EDT / 6 PM AEST on the 28th of September.
THE WIPE
Players will start off Season 2 completely fresh and leave their stories of triumph (and shame) with Season 1 in the past by cleaning the slate for every Prospector out there.
You will of course be able to keep all the Aurum and cosmetic elements you've unlocked so far. Equipment that was included in previously purchased Welcome Packs as well as starting equipment provided to you by Badum will be regranted to your account when the new season begins.
On top of this, we also hope that the story your Prospector creates in the new season will differ from the previous one by providing you with new content to experience. Its almost as if the Cataclysm didn't happen. It did feel real though, didn't it? Ah let's worry about that some other time. We're sure you all want to know why it all happened, but for now, let's get back on the grind for K-Marks and gear. The factions always need bodies to do their dirty work after all.
NEW MAP - THARIS ISLAND
A couple of years before the Cycle began, Korolev discovered Tharis Island and started to investigate the mysterious caverns and canyons within. Their findings were worthwhile, but came at a cost. Those who ventured too deep into the caves began to act strangely, showing subtle signs of an ever-dwindling sanity. These affected members of Korolev came to be known as the Cultists, and their original plans of studying the caverns quickly turned into an aggressive effort to protect the Forge and the other artifacts found deep within Tharis Island at all costs. Now, 30 years later, traces of those cultists have all but vanished. Tharis Island is no longer radioactive, and prospectors have begun exploring the depths of this new and mysterious location.
Tharis Island is a remote location that features Korolev and Osiris activities surrounding a series of caverns and canyons, with a central abyssal cavern sporting alien tech as its centerpiece.
Danger lurks around every corner so only the most seasoned prospectors are permitted. Once you've gained the trust of the factions, you'll be able to aim your drop pod at the few spots safe enough to land and take advantage of what bounties this place offers. Just make sure to report your findings to your employers. It's all about research after all, right?
Be careful when you venture into the dark unknowns, as you might encounter ancient technology in an area far more vicious than everything that you have encountered so far.
Creatures aren't the only thing you'll need to watch out for while venturing deeper into the tunnels of the secluded island. Exercise caution and watch your steps as you explore the depths of Tharis Island. The voids are seemingly bottomless, and no gear recovery team is reckless (or paid) enough to risk eternal torment for a gun or two.
As such, here's what will be displayed on your insurance screen:
THE FORGE
In the deepest, darkest depths of the caverns lies a massive, outlandish machine: The Forge. Its exact origins are still unknown and shrouded in secrecy, though some factions still have a vested interest in learning more about the powers held by such ancient technology. Only the bravest of Prospectors will have a shot at uncovering its secrets, but keep in mind many who tried before have been lost forever. Or worse, clawed their way back battered and scarred. Changed. Exploring the abandoned faction camps and research facilities may hold vital evidence in unlocking the mysteries for those foolish enough to ignore the warnings left by early exploration parties.
- The Forge is a mysterious alien structure located deep within the caverns of Tharis Island.
- This strange structure lies dormant, but some claim that, under the right circumstances, it may come alive once more.
- The Forge holds great power for those cunning and brave enough to unlock its potential.
No doubt will you uncover all of the Forge's secrets in due time. For now, we want to allow you to explore the Island with fresh eyes and solve its mysteries on your own.
IMPROVEMENTS
We also have a lot of general improvements happening with this new update! We want to again extend a big thank you to our players for all of the feedback that they've provided over the course of Season 1. We hope these changes will reflect positively in your experience with Season 2.
- Crescent Falls and Tharis Island (Map 2 and Map 3) are now gated behind campaign progression.
- Access to Crescent Falls is granted upon completion of the first questlines where Prospectors gain the trust of the factions.
- Tharis Island can be accessed roughly halfway through the campaigns.
- Ping restrictions are implemented and will be adjusted over the course of the next days:
- Ping restrictions will be tweaked on a per region basis.
- The goal is to make region hopping and other ping-based foul play more difficult.
- This system can be easily modified, and will be tweaked over the next few days in order to strike a healthy balance.
- Adding a trusted status queue to the game to hamper the creation of alt-accounts and separate them from the existing player base:
- This system is a first step in deterring the process of creating alternate accounts, specifically in regards to ban-dodging.
- It will work automatically behind the scenes, looking at many hidden factors such as account age and purchase history to determine trusted status.
- Trusted parties will get their own separate matchmaking queue with other trusted parties, and vice versa for non-trusted players.
- Trusted and non-trusted players can still party together, but will be placed into non-trusted queues.
- This is the first step in our efforts to make alt-account "spam" more difficult. We will be adding to this system over time with more barriers.
- Improvements to our anti-cheat's internal detection methods to automatically ban cheaters.
- Backend improvements to the game to make the actual development of cheats more difficult.
- The ability to reconnect after losing your connection or crashing has been added to the game.
- This of course has its limits and you will be vulnerable while reconnecting.
NEW FORTUNA PASS
As in Season 1, the paid version of the Fortuna Pass is 950 Aurum. This includes XP boosters for the pass, new Prospector skins, melee weapons, emotes, banners, charms and more. The two amazing new Prospectors available in Season 2 are The Cultist and The Explorer. We also revisited some of the item distribution in the Pass, to make progression through the levels more rewarding.
We revisited the amount of bonus XP that Prospectors received from the premium track, and reduced the amount of bonus % they receive, as the progression was a little bit too fast.
WHAT YOU'LL FIND IN THE PASS
2 Prospectors with 2 variations each, ready to conquer the caves.
Various weapons skins.
Supply crates to help you keep going.
Aurum, Salvage tokens, XP boost, etc.
Abyss Alloy, to support your journey on Tharis...
Many different cosmetics to help you to express your unique style.
This includes two amazing pieces on the free track!
PRIME TIME OFFER
Get ready for the limelight! After countless requests calling for her grand return, Prime Time is back with her dazzling outfit and selection of expressive headgear. She will be available for the whole duration of Season 2, just check out the bundles section in our shop or get it directly from your platform of choice!
Prime Time Prospector with variations
Variations:
- Prime Time
- Entertainer
- Eye of Fortuna
- Party Time
- Prestige
- More than 70 combinations of head gear and masks
- 5 complete outfits (those can be used on any other prospector)
Lighten up the station with your sparkle!
CHANGES
GEAR
Armors and Shields:
- Increased Armor and Penetration values for Exotic Weapons, Helmets and Shields from 29 to 30.
- Increased Armor and Penetration values for Legendary Weapons, Helmets and Shields from 32 to 33.
- Tactical and Restoration Shields of all tiers will now match the armor values of their base versions.
- Rare Restoration Shield crafting recipe changed.
- Rattler Skin increased from 5 to 8.
- Rare Tactical Shield crafting recipe changed.
- Rattler Skin increased from 5 to 8.
- Pale Ivy Blossom increased from 1 to 2.
Weapons:
- S-576 PDW
- Increased damage from 9 to 10.
- C-32 Bolt Action
- Increased cost from 6 800 to 10 000 K-marks.
- Manticore
- Increased projectile speed by 10%.
- KM-9 'Scrapper'
- Increased damage from 10 to 11.
- PKR Maelstrom
- Reduced spread by 20%.
- ICA Guarantee
- Reduced horizontal recoil by 25%.
- Phasic Lancer
- Reduced projectile speed by 10%.
- Increased refire time from 0.26 to 0.35.
- ASP Flechette Gun
- Increased projectile speed by 10%.
- Gorgon
- Increased shots per burst from 11 to 15. Reduced vertical recoil by 15%.
- Advocate
- Reduced damage from 11 to 10.
- Basilisk
- Increased projectile speed by 20%.
- Komrad
- Reduce projectile collision size by 75%.
Grenades
- Light Grenade (new stats)
- Penetration 10
- Radial Damage 84
- Standard Grenade (new stats)
- Penetration 17
- Radial Damage 87
- Assault Grenade (new stats)
- Penetration 30
- Radial Damage 81
- Gas Grenade
- Can't be bought in shops anymore
- Finishing the Gas Grenade optional quest line now unlocks the possibility to craft them.
- Crafting cost increased from 300 to 1 000 K-marks.
Since Tactical Helmets and Tactical Shields now have the same armor value as the regular helmets and shields of the same rarity, their price has been adjusted:
- Increased cost of Common Tactical Shield from 450 K-Marks to 680 K-Marks.
- Increased cost of Common Tactical Helmet from 380 K-Marks to 560 K-Marks.
Lastly, we've added a whole new component to how defensive gear works in the game that relates to the ancient technology of The Forge... but we'll let you explore and discover this on your own!
BADUM'S CODEX
- After completing the tutorial, Prospectors can check back with Badum to access the Codex.
- The Codex contains information on the game and the world of the Cycle (history of Fortuna III, factions, etc.).
- We will be expanding on the Codex in future seasons with more information as new features are added.
CRESCENT FALLS
Loot tiers have been re-balanced in the Northwest part of the map.
- Nutrion Warehouse is now T5.
- Homes have been updated to T4.
- A new key room has been added to the Nutrion Warehouse.
- A number of spawn points have been removed in the Northwest and the East.
- The spawn points around the back of the Pumpkin Fields and Hay fields have been pulled apart to help prevent spawning next to other players.
Before
After
AI
Marauder:
- Increased weak spot damage multiplier from 5 to 10.
- Increased first Stagger threshold from 10% damage within 1 second to 30% damage within 1.5 seconds.
- Increased second Stagger threshold from 20% damage within 1 second to 50% damage within 1.5 seconds.
- Changed its out of combat behavior: it will move around more within its roaming radius.
Combat:
Puddle attack was reworked:
- The puddle stays on the ground for 30 seconds (instead of 10 minutes) but is twice as damaging as before (10 damage per second instead of 5). They've finally learnt to clean after themselves.
- The trajectory of the projectile was slightly revised to make it less likely to hit ceilings in caves. All this bowling training has paid off.
- Increased frequency of use while out of melee range, resulting in more puddle throws between spitting attacks. Still gross tho.
New melee attack:
- Added a quick swipe that does not expose the Marauder's weak point.
- Melee pattern now alternates between that new quick attack that needs to be dodged and the old heavy attack that needs to be interrupted by staggering the beast.
General:
- Improved animations for the local fauna.
Except for Ticks. No one likes those annoying pests.
ART
- New improved canopies for many of our trees, further proving our unwavering love for everything made of leaves and branches.
- All crates and containers have been reworked to improve performance and quality. We think that's a really crate change.
- Improved broken tree trunks, to give a better feeling that the land has been ravaged by the storm.
CAMPAIGNS
The Faction Campaigns got tweaked and adjusted:
- Quest lines have been changed and expanded with a total of 48 new missions. Hurray for more grunt work!
- Existing missions have been made less repetitive.
- New campaigns will guide you through Tharis Island and its depths.
MISC
Changed and adjusted the durability of keycards. Good thing those don't break so easily in the real world.
- Server Access Key - 8 → 15
- Mine Access Key - 5 → 8
- Tall House Key - 5 → 15
- Bright Sands Observation Key - 8 → 10
- Skeleton Key - 12 → 8
- Armory Key - 12
- Luggage Saferoom Key - 12 → 5
- Boss' Office - 18 → 5
- Janitors Key - 15 → 20
- Garage Office - 12 → 8
- Overseers Office - 8 → 10
- Loose House Key - 5 → 15
- Lab Keycard - 18 → 5
- Bar Storage Key - 18 → 8
- Community Room Key - 18 → 5
- Added a lot of new loot points, natural resources, mineral nodes and questline relevant items.
- More varied NPC voice lines added to Prospect Station, thanks to a budget increase for voice acting.
- Increased the frequency of distant lightning strikes during a storm by about 50%. No worries, these just light up the environment and can't damage you.
- Increased overall stash size on the station by 5 slots.
- Do you even lift? Maybe you should! Increased weight of Scrips and Old Currency.
- Old Currency now weighs 0.001.
- Scrips now weigh 0.1.
- This is a first step, additional changes to Scrips and Old Currency are being discussed, as an effort to combat RMT.
- This means no more infinite stacking of these items in your safe pockets... as compensation everyone gets their stash size increased by 5, and two items you might want to hoard had their stack size increased.
- Light & Standard Grenades can now be found in daily crates, with sufficient Player Quarter upgrades.
- In addition to refining nickel on a station, it is now possible to upgrade Titan Ore and Veltecite of all qualities via crafting.
- Veltecite still can't be upgraded to Veltecite Hearts. Nice try.
- Player Quarter upgrades of higher levels will now require some of the new Tharis Island materials.
- Changed weight and stack size for Meteor Cores and some legendary items.
- Meteor Core - Stack size increased from 1 to 3.
- Veltecite Heart - Stack size increased from 1 to 3 - Weight increased from 3 to 10.
- Strider Head - Stack size reduced from 10 to 5.
- Rattler Head - Stack size reduced from 10 to 5.
- Marauder Head - Stack size reduced from 10 to 5.
- Crusher Head - Stack size reduced from 10 to 5.
- Heavy Strider Head - Stack size reduced from 10 to 3.
- Mature Rattler Head - Stack sizer reduced from 10 to 3.
- Savage Marauder Head - Stack size reduced from 10 to 3.
- Adjusted and polished several 1st person animations for weapons.
- Adjusted and polished a lot of 3rd person animations as well.
- Added new sounds to Meteors and adapted the sound pattern, in order:
- Sonic Boom (settle down, Guile).
- Flying (is it a plane? Is it a bird? OH SH- IT'S A METEOR).
- Pre-Impact (this here's a new sound).
- Impact (boom).
- Made improvements on several game sounds.
- Added new sounds to Marauders. Scarier Jeff is fun, amarite?
- Birds will now fly away before a storm starts. Silent birds means you're gonna have a bad time.
- Pebbles are no longer considered a "sound trap" but are a surface for footsteps now. You will be able to hear Prospectors running, walking, crouching and jumping on pebbles. Just make sure those don't get in your boots. Consider wearing sandals.
- Sound traps like bushes and glass shards only trigger sounds after certain thresholds of movement (no longer by 1 pixel mouse movements).
- Increased Uplinks' activity radius.
- The Death Recap screen will show additional information, including helmets and shields.
- Added a sorting option in the selling menus.
- Stack sizes now show properly on any purchasable stacks of items in crafting stations and faction shops.
BUG FIXES
- General anti-cheat fixes and improvements to help our detections run more smoothly.
- ... And too many bug fixes to list them here!
KNOWN ISSUES
- Certain areas on Tharis Island are missing foliage.
- The Soldier's Blade is currently missing its icon.
- There is a stuck spot under a rock formation at the Jungle Thermal Ponds on Crescent Falls.
- There's a door in a building north of the Vaccine Labs that cannot be closed after it is opened.
- There's a stuck spot between the battery slots of the Dig Site area.
- It can happen that mouse sensitivity on the station jumps up, but it is normal on the surface.
- The Cultist Maelstrom has its size decreased in the Fortuna Pass preview.
- Purchasing Fortuna Pass levels will show you rewards from previous tiers, but you will receive the right ones.
- No sound is playing during Fortuna Pass level up overlay when in the Tech Tree.
- An item with the weight reduction perk cannot be placed in your safe pockets.
- Steam - Ingame bundle displayed prices do not match for KRW and VND: The comma used by steam and in-game is position differently however the final checkout prices on Steam are correct.
- It can happen that the red 'hitmarker' appears despite the other player not dying when shooting with the Komrad
- Our server hosting provider is currently having a minor backend issue, causing our cheater compensation package system to not send out packages properly. This will be fixed in the next patch.
MISC
- Closed Beta 1 Contest winners have their name in game now - Rachta Z, Death Stalker, AtopDerekMountain.
That's all for now, prospectors! Thank you all for helping create a wonderful first season of The Cycle: Frontier, and hopefully many more seasons to come!
We will have some additional information coming on the 29th in the form of a livestream with parts of our dev team. You will be able to tune in on Twitch, YouTube, or our game's Steam store page.
Keep an eye on our Twitter for the exact start time and additional information - We heard that there will be a lot of cool things raffled out during the stream.
Also don't forget to join us on Discord (https://discord.com/invite/thecycle) and our Reddit (https://www.reddit.com/r/TheCycleFrontier/) and make sure to follow us on Twitter (https://twitter.com/TheCycleGame)
As always, don't forget - Fortuna Favors the bold!