Hey Prospectors!
Community Team here once again to bring you the patch notes for 2.4.0. Our previous patches so far have prioritized weapon and gear balancing, but there is other feedback and additional reports from our players that need to be addressed as well. This patch will primarily focus on a mixed batch of changes and community pain points that we'd like to address sooner rather than later, along with a hefty list of bug fixes. We are having internal discussions about additional changes for the Forge, armor and power progression. Of course we are also taking a very close look at our matchmaking system for any possible future changes.
With that said, let's take a look at what's in store for Patch 2.4.0.
CHANGES
FRIENDS LIST LIMITATION
Hey there friends! Can we call you friends? If so, this is quite literally a fix for you. In order to address internal issues caused by having an exceptionally high number of friends on your friends list (aren't we the popular one eh?), we will be introducing a hard limit to how many the list can contain. Currently we are setting this limit to 250 friends, which should be more than enough for most of you. The friends list should behave normally before reaching that threshold.
For those who already have more than 250, some of your friends in the game will be removed automatically during startup to accommodate this limit. You will of course be able to re-invite them after deleting some others. Sorry for the inconvenience.
If you reach 250 after this change, you will not be able to add more until you delete some.
WEAPONS & GEAR
Although this is a minor patch for balance, we do plan to have more changes coming in Patch 2.5.0 based on some of the feedback we've seen in our community channels. Weapon and armor balance is always something we are keeping a close eye on, but we do have a little something for you in the meantime.
- Hunter Vision - We are re-enabling Hunter Vision with this update, a perk that you can get from the Alien Forge on Tharis Island and that has been disabled for a while now.
- We have fixed the sound cue for Hunter Vision. You will now emit a constant noise while Hunter Vision is active that all other players in the area can hear. This should help make the vision more balanced.
- Indirect vision range has been reduced from 3000 to 1500 when enemies are not within normal line of sight.
- Direct vision range has been reduced from 8000 to 6000 when enemies are within normal line of sight.
THARIS ISLAND
- There's been some improvements to the general "rattiness" of the Tharis caverns. These are just our first steps towards improving Tharis island and you can expect more changes in future patches.
- A number of dark corners have been smoothed and/or illuminated.
- There's been a general reduction of stuff to hide behind in the pit.
- A handful of locations that caused you to die from the Void when trying to pickup gear have been adjusted, so you can claim your hard-earned rewards without fear of a big one-way drop.
STORM ON THARIS ISLAND
- We increased the frequency of the storm on Tharis Island, so the Forge will be available more often. Time before storm phases has been reduced by 9 minutes for now, but we are looking into other additional adjustments in the future.
MISC.
- We have changed the player report workflow, simplifying the whole player report process. This is based on your feedback, so make sure to tell us how it feels now!
- You won't be able to walk on Barbed Wire and Thorny Vines sitting on top of walls and fences, preserving your precious little feet from unnecessary lacerations. (Note from Tesuji, Lead Level Designer: They still won't apply damage ... for now!)
- We have reduced the fog in some parts of our maps.
- Scrip stack size is increased from 1000 to 10000.
- Loot value for the Crusher Caverns has been increased with new loot containers. As a result, the amount of monsters was adjusted as well. Cherry on top, the boss was made harder as well.
- Some vanity items got their price adjusted.
- There are some smaller adjustments on how the matchmaking works for both trusted and untrusted servers.
BUGFIXES
- Night Vision does not make players more visible through smoke along with other fixes to NV helmet vision. Your eyes are still your best ally in your ventures.
- The perk that reduces damage from explosives will only apply to damage received from explosives. Previously it also made you deal less damage with explosives, which went against the idea of demolition builds.
- A small fix for the "Reduced Weight" perk was implemented. Weight reduction will only apply when the backpack is equipped and will not reduce weight of items when the backpack is on the ground.
- Fixed an issue where dropped player loot around specific ledges towards the Void was inaccessible or caused players to be hurled into said pit of darkness.
- Fixed an unruly cabinet that was clipping through the roof in the Osiris Offices, giving us all the tiniest respite against the inevitable furniture revolution.
- The floating Ancient Vent container was exorcised and shouldn't be floating anymore.
- The voracious Forge will no longer eat gear that is dropped within the forge cylinder.
- You can't fire the Zeus Beam without charging anymore. Harnessing the power of the sun is a lengthy process.
- The Kinetic Arbiter sound bug got fixed. Swapping weapons with it will no longer act as a makeshift sound dampener and remove environmental sounds.
- There were some spots that caused "flashy effects" to appear when you looked at them while another player shined their flashlights on them. Fortunately for our eyeballs, this is fixed now.
- The Explorer's AR-55 preview got fixed.
- There are a handful of doors at the East Collection Point and Dig Site on Bright Sands that got fixed.
- The waterfall close to the Nutrion Farms Warehouse on Crescent Falls received a fix for its water effects. Again.
- A handful of missing walls were re-introduced into the Jungle Thermal Ponds on Crescent Falls. Hopefully, these pesky walls will stop running away for now.
- The Crusher that was supposed to roam around the Skeleton on Crescent Falls came back from its break and is back on the payroll.
- Your first interaction with a faction leader NPC will not cause lag anymore. First impressions are important.
- We have fixed another round of out of bounds spots and spots that caused trouble on our maps, including the infamous "PvP Rock" on Crescent Falls, along with some other fixes on the maps.
- An issue with the sound of "doubled"-footsteps got resolved.
- The Base Camp will not have an audible rain sound in the storm, as long as you keep a roof above your head.
- Fixed a bug with the Forge buttons.
- The Laser Drill will carry backpacks with it as intended and those won't clip through the surface anymore.
- The UI scale will not change when you check a dropped backpack.
- You can properly claim your K-Marks from insurance, even if your stash is full.
- Fixed the XP distribution showing on the screen at the end of a drop.
- We have fixed several localization issues for our supported languages.
- The Fortuna Pass level 100 popup won't appear again after reaching level 100. Only one firework per player allowed, those are expensive you know!
- Swamp foliage got fixed on Bright Sands, as it caused some issues with lower settings.
- Healing animation got fixed and doesn't end too early anymore. Healing is also now interrupted if a player starts sprinting while healing, as was always intended. Ever tried stitching an open wound during a marathon?
- Rattlers should not teleport anymore when awoken from their slumber. Damn do I wish I could to that to get to work in the morning.
- The medium magazine Advocate attachment got fixed.
- Fixed the Booster banner so it now stops showing another banner instead.
- The Player Quarter upgrades should finally be fully fixed. Please let us know if you still encounter this issue.
- This is gonna sound specific, but adjusted reverb for single fire weapons in the Osiris Research Center.
- One of the Vaccine Labs doors got its buttons rearranged.
- Creatures won't attack the Meteors if there is no player nearby. Talk about pent-up aggressiveness.
- Equipment sounds will no longer be audible when loading into the tutorial. You will drop in with all gear properly equipped.
- Solved occlusion issues with footstep sounds and gunshots within buildings. You should be able to hear other Prospectors moving within the same building a bit better.
- Weapon charms won't vibrate or shake uncontrollably anymore when previewing specific weapons. Don't ask.
- Your selected prospector archetype will now be properly displayed when previewing an emote.
- Vanity items from Twitch Drops and Fortuna Pass rewards can now properly be claimed even if your stash is full.
- Pressing the "ESC" key on the quick menu screens will now work as intended.
- Reworded some mission/quest reward screens. Available rewards will now be easier to find.
- Recipe requirements at the Crafting Table will now display properly after skipping crafting time for an item.
- Daily Actions caption will no longer display over the Fortuna Pass level UI.
- Names of other players won't disappear anymore while on the station. We've already received a few letters of complaints from sneaky ninjas and the Invisible Man.
- Wire on the Scrapper preview at the Fortuna Pass booth on the station has been fixed.
- Added an actual description for the Nutrion Farms Warehouse keycard.
- The Bar Storage keycard won't somehow break early and can now be used an intended total of 8 times.
- One cause for players encountering an infinite loading loop when launching the game has been resolved. Other instances of error codes or loading loops are still being investigated for fixes.
- Mission hint for Gain Trust pt 2 now gives a better clue to where players can find items needed to complete the quest.
- Seasonal statistics no longer disappear after selecting a different filter for statistics view.
- Salvage Insured weapon attachments that were looted by an enemy will no longer be returned in insurance packages.
KNOWN ISSUES
Weapons
- There are multiple hit registration issues present at the edge of the AOE when shooting with the Komrad.
- No-reg hitmarkers and kill markers reports are being investigated by the team.
Crafting
- In the Gear Printer menu while having a print in-progress, there is a visual bug showing the 'Print' button as still available if you have all materials for a craftable item.
Fortuna Pass
- Claiming an Archetypes displays duplicate body parts beside it (Chest, Gloves, Boots).
- After completing one level purchase in the 'Fortuna Pass', the next consecutive purchase displays the icons of items from the previous purchase.
Gear visibility
- In match, you don't see your own Backpack (can be evident when emoting) but can see other Prospector Backpacks.
As usual, 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)
Keep the feedback coming as we always appreciate constructive suggestions as to how we can improve the experience of Fortuna II. Y'know the gig: Fortuna Favors the bold!