With this update, our main intention was to fix an issue that came up with Windmills being available to be put on Walkers, as they would allow to easily push any Walker disregarding the physics. It allowed for easy griefing, as it would push a Walker with no option to retaliate and even allowed to push Walkers through objects in some cases. That should be fixed now.
In addition to it, we've included some small changes we've been working on to make the patch a little more interesting than just a small fix. One of the most significant changes is that Windmills now only generate torque while in the strong winds of a Sandstorm. What we're hoping for with this change is that Windmills will be put on special Sandstorm-chasing Walkers and driven directly into a Sandstorm like daredevil Nomads. Of course, it should also work with static Windmills, but then you're hoping for an accidental Sandstorm passing through and have to keep the Windmill exposed to other dangers.
It's currently an early version of the feature and we'll definitely be tweaking it based on the feedback, but it should make Torque generation, which is a high tier resource, more active and interesting, rather than placing some windmills inside a base and passively generating torque at a slow pace. We're currently aiming at around a minute spent in a sandstorm to produce enough Torque to power your machines for some time. It can be amplified by using larger walkers to put more Windmills on them, but we're also planning a better Windmill with a more advanced mechanism for Sleeping Giants that would produce low amounts of Torque without strong winds of a Sandstorm and produce much large amounts while in one. Also, we're considering various protections for being in a Sandstorm, both for your character and the Walker you're driving.
- Fixed Windmills pushing walkers being broken.
- Made Tier 1 Windmill work only in Sandstorms.
- Updated Tier 1 Windmill description to mention use in Sandstorms.
- Very significantly increased torque generation of Tier 1 Windmills.
- Slightly decreased torque generation of Walkers to promote Windmill use.
- Significantly increased Tier 1 Windmill HP to withstand Sandstorms.
- Fixed Sandstorms sometimes damaging things inside large bases.
- Fixed wrong interaction prompt on Papak harvesting.
- Fixed dead Papaks still producing sounds sometimes.
- Lowered Trade Station Light Wall Schematic sale cost, considering increased drop rate.
- Fixed Sandstorm particles flying in wrong direction.
- Fixed duplicate entries in Schematic unlock list.
- Fixed Scattershot sometimes not damaging players.
- Fixed Purification Station being buildable on some walkers.
HOTFIX
The new hotfix should fix the issues with existing windmills being turned on by default (without having to check if there's a sandstorm, which is how we didn't spot it during testing, since we tested by building new windmills). We've also increased the torque production speed, at least until we add more tools to counter the sandstorm on your walker, but as implied by the previous changelog, we have another tier of a Windmill coming with Sleeping Giants map that will allow both idle generation and very high speed generation inside a sandstorm, so it's mainly a temporary measure until it's in. We'll keep monitoring feedback and how you play to adjust all of those values, though. As we've said from the beginning of S5, this is a highly iterative season, where we try seemingly drastic features to see how they will play out in the game, so it might seem like a gigantic change in direction with torque generation, but we'd like to try it out to see how a more active way of generating a high tier resource like torque will feel instead of having it fully passive by placing a generator and just waiting while staring at a wall.
We've also increased the Windmill capacity to 1500, so you can store more in them while generating, since the rate of generation increased, so you'll fill it up rather quickly. Meanwhile, we managed to also add a quick buff to the quests for bringing items to the Trade Station in terms of the payout per item. The idea is to make quests a little more lucrative as opposed to dumping schematics you don't want into a quick seller and, partially, to add a bit more flots into the system from lowering the cost of Light Wood schematics.
- Fixed existing windmills generating torque without a sandstorm present.
- Increased Windmill generation rate per second to 5.
- Increased Windmill capacity to 1500 Torque.
- Buffed payout on Bring Items quest at the Trade Station.