April Update Patch notes
Just before we get ready for a release, we wanted to give you a final look at the April update.
A slew of changes are coming your way including sound occlusion, NPC behavior, aim-assist settings, map updates and more.
To top it all, we have a special surprise included in this patch that we can't wait for you to discover very soon.
In the meantime, let's dive into the patch notes!
Live Experiment
Solo and Duo Player Count
Back at the launch of catalog 3, we ran several player count experiments for solo lobby team sizes. While we got some valuable feedback from the experiment, the fact we were deep reworking core systems for operation overhaul and the wide array of player counts we tried meant that it was pretty hard to measure how positive the impact was on the experience.
We feel we are in a much better spot to gate the impact of this now so we would like to run a new experiment affecting two modes. For the launch weekend solo and duo will get the following tests:
- Solo lobbies will be changed to 8 players per lobby.
- Duo lobbies will be changed to 5 teams per lobby (10 players).
General Changes
REDACTED
NPC behavior overhaul
There is quite a bit of new on how NPC operate this update, so let’s go through the new systems:
Item Awareness
You probably had a moment in the past where a NPC would stop near an intel and looked very suspicious. Are they hacking? Is it a player? These moments are fun, but they used to happen purely by random, a NPC deciding to walk there with no rhyme or reason.
This is no longer the case. NPC can now know where we spawn items and NPC with a high internal “Suspicious” rating will hang around them within interacting distance to better approximate a player’s behavior and blur the line further.
Running Ratio based on gameflow
How much NPC run overall will now be affected by the current state of the game. Running will be more rare in the early game and much more present in the extract for example, scaling as the action ramps up to fit the pace of the game.
Reaction to danger zones
The fear effect on NPC is dictated by what we call danger zones. A danger zone is generated around the shooter and where the shot lands. In the past, these zones were both the same side and would not account for occlusion by walls or floors. This could lead to afraid npc giving away a fight from very far, causing more third parties.
Now, we support different danger zone sizes and we can occlude the danger using the same flag we use for sound occlusion, making the aggro of npc more predictable and closer to what you can hear. This should limit weird situations where NPCs two floors above a fight are afraid if a bullet lands near the top of a wall below for instance.
Map Updates
We are continuing our work to update maps this time with a focus on Hard Sell, Fragrant Shore and Diamond Spire.
Hardsell:
New rotation points added in staff rooms around the maps and an extended terrace network on the rooftops should help make the map feel more fluid than ever. Inside the vault, new visual cover and intel setups on the upper floors will make for more engaging combat and stealth.
Fragrant Shore:
A new staff room on the waterfront, a balcony to flank inside the clock tower and a bunch of new visual cover both inside and in front of the capitol helps make Fragrant feel more fresh. There is also a whole new path to reach the central room of the vault if you enter from the waterfront, giving more leeway to dodge rivals in this crucial part of the level.
Diamond Spire:
Tinted glass in restricted areas now offer much more options for stealth oriented players. Staff rooms have been expanded to make them more vast and interesting to play in and a bunch of rather empty areas have received visual cover and intel locations.
UI Refresh
Updates to UI across the game from menus to in-game hud to make things cleaner and more stylish. Work has also been put into making the HUD a bit less intrusive overall while keeping things clear, especially when it comes to current equipment at the right of the screen.
Aim-Assist Settings
We are rolling some new aim-assist settings for controllers. You will now be able to disable aim-assist on hostile guards to keep it only on guards and adjust the strength for hipfire vs ADS.
Here’s a rundown of what they do in practice:
- All targets: Spies, NPCs, gadgets. Everyone basically will get aim-assist.
- Hostiles only : Guards, Out of cover spies and gadgets will get aim-assist.
- Spies only: Out of cover spy only will have aim-assist applied.
Reusable Vault Printer
Can now be re-used to reduce camping in the infiltration phase. Additionally, we moved some locations that were a bit too close for comfort, making it easy to camp two printers at once. We hope these changes will make the infiltration phase feel more dynamic.
Extraction Phase feedback tweaks
We have adjusted the overall colors of the navmode when scanning with the briefcase to better see the contrast between rival players and the environment.
Additionally, we have tweaked the size of the UI indicator showing the location of the last briefcase ping and extended the time this ping is visible substantially.
Share XP sources in team modes
As it currently stands, team modes often lead to much less XP being gained for players compared to solo matches for a wide variety of reasons. One step we are taking to alleviate this is now making sure that XP from unlocking doors and field upgrade chests will be shared to the entire team, no matter who spent it. XP cassettes, piles of bonds and purses of credits will also award their XP amount to the entire team when looted now (the credits and bonds amount will still only go to the looter though).
Additionally, we have raised the amount of XP for reviving a teammate to 100 up from 50.
We know this probably won’t entirely solve the issue, but we hope it’s a positive first step in making team matches more worth your time when looking for that sweet XP.
Balance
Expertise Match Cooldown
We are reducing the amount of time players have to wait before using their expertise on match start. We hope this reduces the gap between very expertise dependent characters and less dependent ones while still keeping some form of guard rails against very quick rushes using some expertises.
- Expertise charge on match start 0% => 50%
Agent hitbox tweaks
We have adjusted hitboxes on some agents that were outliers in their sizes. This pass mostly targets Hans, Red (who had bigger hitboxes than needed) and Octo (who had a tighter hitbox than needed). These changes should make them more in line with the rest of the cast.
Movement Update
Tweaks to movement rules with the goal of making overall controls feel more fluid.
- Delay to be able to run after firing a weapon has been reduced from .75 to .25 seconds.
- Maximum turn rate while running has been increased by 20 degrees, allowing controller users to run without having to keep a strict angle on their controllers.
Agents
Ace
We are adjusting the jack of diamond to fall within the “high caliber” profile of damage falloff , making it more potent from a distance.
Weapons
Mod 1 : Jack of Diamond
- Damage Falloff start at 20m => 25m
- Max damage at full falloff 60% => 70%
Chavez
We are adjusting the behavior of pickable gadgets to fall in line with other non-interactable objects when Chavez is invulnerable.
Expertise
Base: Hard Boiled
- Can no longer pick up gadgets while invulnerable
Mod 2: Return to Sender
- Can no longer pick up gadgets while invulnerable
Larcin
Our focus on Larcin this update is around his grande finale ability. We are making several adjustments to unwanted behaviors as well as tweaking the size to make it more of a tactical consideration in combat. Additionally, we are giving a little boost to Silence's fire rate to make it a more competitive choice with a clearer personality vs Larcin’s other options.
Weapons
Base Weapon: Silence
- Fire rate 4.25 => 5.25 shots per second
Expertise
All
- Can no longer pick up gadgets while immaterial.
Mod 1 : Grande Finale
- Zone size has been reduced by about 55% to reduce mobility while inside
- Can no longer use social interacts inside the zone
Octo
Octo is getting a slew of adjustments to make him a more competitive pick. We have touched every weapon to make them more convenient to use as well as more reliable in a wide range of possible combat situations. We hope this makes using Octo more fun and increases his presence in matches!
Weapons
Base Weapon : Pulpo
- Hip Fire damage 10 => 15 per shot
- ADS intel shot damage 20 => 23 per shot
- Magazine size 5 => 6
Weapon Mod 1 :Nautilo
- Charge time has been normalized: First charge takes .5s and every subsequent charge level now takes .65 seconds
- Damage per charge level change from 10-15-20-40-60 => 10-20-30-40-50
Weapon Mod 2 :Calamari
- Intel shot cost 3 => 2 intel
- Reduced recoil in scope
Passive
Passive Mod 2 : Jackpot
Special note: This change was actually already live but not noted in previous patch notes. It was introduced with our live balancing system around the launch of operation overhaul. We are listing it here in the spirit of transparency.
- % Refund per intel spent or gained 2.5% => 1%
- % chance of full refund per intel 5% => 3.5%
Madame Xiu
Xiu’s Longshen was singled out as an outlier after our recoil tone down pass in Operation Overhaul. We are tweaking the animation and the recoil curve to make it less of a hindrance in combat.
Weapon Mod 1: Longshen
- Reduced Recoil
Red
Just like Ace, Red’s jack of heart is getting a change of damage falloff profile to give a more long range identity. We are also upping heartbreaker’s damage a bit to make it more reliable in all scenarios and to ensure it’s a bit deadlier when getting the drop on a heartbroken opponent.
Weapons
Base : Heartbreaker
- Damage 8 => 9
- Headshot damage 11 => 12
Mod 1 : Jack of Heart
- Damage Falloff start at 20m => 25m
- Max damage at full falloff 60% => 70%
Sasori
Sasori is getting both a much requested quality of life change and some adjustments to his kit to make him less oppressive. You will now be able to aim his sword better with the addition of a reticle when preparing a strike. On the poison front, duration has been reduced to diminish instances where poison lasts for a long time post fight. We are also toning down give and take’s bonus damage to make it less of a clear standout in Sasori’s options.
Weapons
All
- Reticle is now visible when aiming a sword attack.
Expertise
All
- Base Poison Duration 12s => 10s
Passive
Mod 1: Give and take
- Bonus sword damage on poison 30% => 15%
Mod 2: Down with the sickness
- Poison duration 24s => 18s
Gadget
Drone
- Scaled up the drone to be 15% bigger than previously, with appropriate tweaks to hitbox to make it easier to hit when on the move.
Goopod
Goo Pods were hit by proxy when we nerfed slowly across the board last update. We have split their value from the base slow effect for now to allow a different balancing. Since they require more setup and are more easily avoided than other slow sources, we feel their higher slow value is warranted. We’ll keep an eye on this change to make sure this does not throw off the current balance on slow.
- Slow rate 30% => 40%
Scrambler
- Using the scrambler will no longer pinpoint your location with a visual effect while in handheld version. Enemies will still get alerted they are within scrambler range.
Umbrella Shield
The shield is still an extremely competitive pick and we are focusing our attention this time on situations where players hold it open forever while in cover in anticipation of an attack. From now on, the shield’s health will drain continuously when open in handheld mode at a rate of 2.5HP per second. This means that opening your shield when needed and gauging how long you should keep it up is now an important consideration.
- Shield health will now drain slowly when open (2.5 HP per second) in handheld mode and regenerate when closed.
- Tweaked visual effects to make the current damage state clearer.
- Delay to shoot after opening shield now applies to charge weapons correctly.
- Slight expansion of the weak point hitbox in deployed mode to help shoot it in less than ideal placements.
Bug Fixes
General
- Fixed an issue where guards would internally consider you heat level 1 when you were not, causing more aggression than intended.
- Extended spy cache loot range to fix issues grabbing it when a lot of items are present.
- Fixed a crash that could happen once a game is found before getting to agent select.
- Defeat screen will no longer pop immediately when dying.
- Fixed an issue where projectile weapons could shoot behind walls and other obstacles when close enough to them.
- Fixed an issue where guards would actively try to enter a purple room when they should not be able to.
- Fixed an issue that would lead to navmode overlay being stuck after getting eliminated.
- Fixed Navmode overlay stuck on death.
Agents
Ace
- Fixed an issue that caused Ace’s expertise to miss when trying to apply on a NPC.
- Fixed an issue that would lead to the big blind ability not highlighting out of cover spies inside.
Cavalière
- Fixed an issue that prevented Cavalière from investigating field upgrade chests and lost and found boxes.
Larcin
- NPC no longer look at you when invisible.
- Fixed clipping issues in result screens featuring Larcin.
Octo
- Fixed an issue with Nautilo’s audio making it audible from much too far away.
- Fixed an issue where Octo could store a charge shot with the Nautilo.
- Toned down Nautilo effect on the victim’s camera to limit the “flash” effect.
Madame Xiu
- Xiu’s VIP clones can no longer open orange doors.
Sasori
- Fixed an issue where getting revived inside Sasori’s bubble would leave the tooltip stuck.
- Fixed an issue where Sasori would get cooldown reduction twice with his darts using down with the sickness.
- Fixed an issue where kunai would not spawn if the shot was not charged.
- Fixed an issue where Sasori’s poison would prevent the use of shortcuts.
Yu-Mi
- Fixed Yu-Mi’s EMP destroying the umbrella shield in another player’s inventory even when not out.
Levels
All Levels
- Fixed multiple chairs and benches across all levels to make them sittable.
- Fixed multiple instances of invisible keycards clipping in meshes.
- Fixed an issue where both purple and blue keycards could spawn in the same room inside the vault.
- Fixed NPC stuck spots across multiple maps
Silver Reef
- Fixed a spot where players could leave the map using two bounce mats.
Sound Eclipse
- Fixed some spots that would not count as part of purple rooms outside the vault.
Gadgets
- Deploying the umbrella shield will no longer stop you from sprinting.
- Fixed UI issue with hacktrap when placing traps in pregame lobby before the game starts.
- Fixed an issue that would cause tripwire UI to persist forever when getting eliminated inside of it.
- Fixed an issue where mimic could break spectator cam with many different objects.
- Fixed an issue that made it difficult to place gadgets while in social interactions.
