Killing Floor 2: Summer Update Beta 1 is Now Live for PC!

[McPiper]

Yeah baby, that was i looking for.

 

[simplecat]

EnableCheats
GiveWeapon KFGameContent.KFWeap_ShrinkRayGun
GiveWeapon KFGameContent.KFWeap_AutoTurret

 

[OnionBubs]

Some thoughts thus far:

Sentinel:

• Goes in the equipment slot
• Max ammo count of 4; extra mag skill gives +1
• Weighs 3 blocks
• Deploys with Mouse1
• The following will cause the drone to explode:
  • Deploying another drone with M1 while the first is active
  • pressing Mouse2 with the suitcase(?) currently equipped
  • The drone runs out of ammo; there is a short delay before exploding
• The drone exploding will inflict damage and knockdown incap
• Drone has a 360-degree sight cone
• Drone will focus down enemies by rapid-firing one target at a time and will only switch when its current target dies
• Drone has limited ammunition; haven't been able to count the exact number of shots but it's quite a lot
• Drone is capable of headshotting but that is incidental; as far as I can tell it tries to aim for center of mass (you can see this comparing Crawlers vs. Bloats, for example)
• Damage without headshots isn't great
  • Takes ~8 shots to kill a Clot (6P HoE)
  • Mostly for Crawler swarms
• Drone cannot target Stalkers; it can shoot Stalkers if one gets in between the Drone and the Drone's target, but it will not actively target them even on Commando w/ callouts
• Drone can rage large Zeds via damage
• Drone can cause Zed-Time
• Drone can also extend Zed-Time on its own, which is *not good*

Final verdict:
No. Ruining Zed-Time Extensions for actual experienced players is bad enough, but the bad damage on anything stronger than a Crawler is icing on the cake.
It's counterproductive to make a weapon that actually lowers the skill ceiling of its designated perk; one of the most important aspects of Commando is learning to space out kills in Zed-Time to maximize your extensions. Which this thing absolutely doesn't do; it will shred through whatever comes closest to it with no regard for that.
It's probably better off-perk than on-perk, to be frank. Which means you're going to see lots of Survivalists and probably Supports running this.

Reducto Ray:

• 100 mag size; max spare ammo of 600
• 5 weight blocks
• Uses 3 ammo per trigger pull
• Shrinks Zeds; which increases their vulnerability to damage, and inflicts continuous damage on its own as long as the beam is impacting a Zed.
• Support weapon, my foot. While not exactly ammo-efficient, it kills things relatively safely and has some...interesting interactions with Zeds.
• Namely, this thing seems to ignore Zed rage. I was able to hold down Mouse1 and gib both Fleshpounds and Scrakes without them even going into rage animations. I'm not sure what's up with this but if this particular aspect of the gun isn't changed you won't see a Survivalist without it.
• High damage even at tier 3.

Final verdict:
A spam gun that can effortlessly murder large Zeds on its own, but also contribute to takedowns? Ah, it's like the Beta Microwave Gun never left us. Extremely powerful and lightweight.
It will still be extremely annoying for precision perks to deal with, but chaos perks legitimately don't have to care. The only time this would upset them is if the Shrinker goes off during an active headtrace with the Helios Rifle or something like that.

----------
UPDATE:
So apparently this thing works by killing Zeds entirely through the shrink incap rather than dealing damage. This gun actually has a dual-purpose incap: if the shrunk Zed doesn't receive damage from other sources, the shrink ray will just kill it after passing a certain incap threshold.
This would explain why it can kill HVTs without enraging them: the gun isn't really doing damage, so the Zeds don't rage; they'll just die on their own accord. Right now it thus kills solo FPs in HoE as quickly as 6P HoE Fleshpounds because the incap doesn't scale with health, making it officially the safest reliable takedown in the game.

This is kinda hilariously broken and I'll see if I can put it in another perspective.

Imagine if the Freezethrower had a second hidden ability: when you keep freezing the Zed enough, it just gets too cold and shatters on its own without anyone else needing to damage it. So on top of having an incredibly good incap in the form of freeze you also had access to an instant kill.

Only this time you're charging $10 USD for anyone to have access to a 5-weight gun that can kill up to 14 Fleshpounds on its own as well as allowing other teammates to do the job for you with the shrink debuff. And it's meant for the perk that has received the most weapons and, especially with the selectable grenades, the most buffs over the course of the game's lifetime.
And the perk is meant to be mediocre at everything but now it's good at everything except other perks' very niche applications.

:<

I'm trying to be as nice about this as possible but it makes me kinda mad that this is the current state of things.
----------

HRG Headhunter:

• Tier 3
• 5 weight blocks
• Primary fire causes Zed heads to slightly inflate; as far as I can tell it takes basically the whole clip to max out the head size
  • Primary fire damage is pretty awful w/r/t breakpoints; it's basically as strong as an offperk 9mm
  • At Tier 3 it can decap (not kill) a Gorefast with a headshot, you need at least 1 ReU starting to instakill
  • At Tier 5 it's...better?
• Alt-fire damages and inflicts Stun on all Zeds with inflated heads in a certain area around the player
  • From what I can tell, the more inflated a Zed's head is, the more damage the alt-fire will do
  • I believe it does actual headshot damage and not just body damage because the Zed's head can explode on a decap. UPDATE: This may not be the case; see lower in the thread for simple cat's post regarding that.
  • The alt-fire runs on Medic dart recharge rules, but the ammocounter has to be 100 before it can fire; you cannot spam it
  • As far as I know the alt-fire damage doesn't appear to be affected by Sniper, Stability, or Rack 'em Up; it's a static value based purely on the head dart count
  • If a Zed does not die from the alt-fire, its head shrinks back to normal size
  • Any Zeds that are blocking basically don't care about the alt-fire; it will do far less damage and not stun them, but their heads will return to normal
• Kill potential is probably worse than the actual Hemogoblin it's based off
• The head inflation does work on shrunk enemies, for what that's worth; in all honesty you're better off just letting the Reducto Ray wielder do their own thing because it's way better as a weapon than this

Final verdict:
There's far too much working against this weapon in general, including itself. It's funny but utterly useless.
To take the best advantage of the alt-fire, you want to spam shots on Zeds no matter where you hit so you can max out your inflation counter and thus your alt-fire damage...but you have limited ammo in any round so you don't want to use too much.
So you want to hit heads anyway because shooting the Zed's body does virtually no damage and doesn't mix with the alt-fire doing damage on the head. In which case you're at least decapping/killing trash before you can use the alt-fire, making this pointless. But in the same vein, the primary fire damage doesn't do nearly enough to justify it in most cases and the alt-fire suffers from much of the same problem.
As far as a support option vs. Scrakes/Fleshpounds/QPs, it has the same problem as the Hemogoblin (especially the old Hemogoblin): shooting a Scrake enough to inflict the debuff means you're raging it, and while you can stun the Scrake, any team worth their salt knows how to deal with Scrakes quickly enough that it's unnecessary.
Against Fleshpounds/QPs, shooting it enough to debuff means it rages, which means your team already needs to be coordinating a takedown or someone's getting hit by virtue of how Pounds operate. In addition, the head explosion will do less damage because the Fleshpound is blocking and you will not be able to stun it, meaning that entire point of the weapon is useless.
While it does make followups easier, why would you operate on that principle when killing it first is the better option?`

--------
UPDATE:
Confirmed that the alt-fire does only body damage; the decap is a cosmetic effect.
This weapon is terrible, don't use it.
--------

HRG Crossboom: I don't see the point. Imagine the M79, but...worse?

Impact damage is negligible, the explosion is smaller than the M79's, it does less damage/has worse falloff, and it costs more money. It does have a larger total ammo count and reload, but...

 

[GUM]

Why did you forget about the berserker?

 

[Deleted member 117109]

Would be great if the devs added achievements for the Epic Games Store version of KF2

 

[Kittenmittens]

Why did you forget about the berserker?

What do you mean we forgot about the berserker? Not all perks get a new weapon or change each update. We try to spread around the balance changes and weapon focus.

 

[OnionBubs]

What do you mean we forgot about the berserker? Not all perks get a new weapon or change each update. We try to spread around the balance changes and weapon focus.

That poster just looks like one of the many persons who signed up to complain about the Berserker nerfs.

 

[Dudmaster]

I played around with the drone and while it is fun to use, it's underwhelming and not practical for higher difficulties/late game. Issues I've noticed with it...

1. It has weak base damage. Considering it aims primarily for center of mass, it's going to take it a while to kill anything that isn't a crawler. It will only hit the head if it happens to fall into the firing line from the turret to the center of mass or a bullet strays.
2. It doesn't discriminate... it shoots everything. Including calm Fleshpounds and Scrakes. Last thing anyone wants is a Scrake or a Fleshpound (or several of both) losing their shite at once.
3. It can mess with Commandos extending zed time. I don't have an issue with it triggering/starting zed time. As it could trigger it like any other player and I could (hopefully) have bullets in my gun and zeds near me. However, again, it does not discriminate... it shoots everything. It being able to kill zeds and accidentally extended zed time prematurely can easily waste the Commando's potential to maximize zed time up-time.

Here are some ways these issues could be addressed...

1. Increase the base damage by at least 100% so it can at least kill clots in ~4 shots instead of ~8 shots.
2. This could be tricky, but maybe add an alt-fire to it where it toggles what type of zed for it to shoot like: Small zeds only, small and medium zeds only, and then all types of zeds. This would help allow the user to have more control of the drone with what type of zed it shoots.
3. Get rid of its ability to extend zed time. Simple as that.

Not saying these are perfect, but they are just some ideas to address the issues.

Edit: fixed some grammar issues. Originally typed from a mobile device.

 

[Jhil2464]

What do you mean we forgot about the berserker? Not all perks get a new weapon or change each update. We try to spread around the balance changes and weapon focus.

Thanks for putting in the work, and keeping this game running, freshly with updates, Don't mind some of the members of this community that treat you guys with hostilities/criticisms, please. The majority of us do truly appreciate everything you, and your team have done to keep the fans playing KF2 for more than 6 years now.

 

[Aleflippy]

Why did you forget about the berserker?

WTF dude? The Zerk is already one of the top perks, with very powerful (and MANY) weapons to choose from, and one of the only skill tree where you can choose pretty much what you want and it will still be effective.

@Jhil2464 how can you seriously write "don't mind criticism" ?! If there's one thing where art and product collides, it's most definitely criticism. Maybe you're thinking of the people who'll just say "this sucks", "buff plz" and the likes. But posts like what @OnionBubs and @Dudmaster wrote are respectful, helpful and constructive. It allows to make the game better in future updates. And let's not forget that while Tripwire has been keeping the game alive for all these years (thanks guys !), we're still customers at the end of the day. It's only natural to we aim to be satisfied with what we pay for. Sure, we could tiptoe in our remarks when everything was brought up for free. But now that half the weapons have been put behind a paywall? OF COURSE we're gonna tell about our experiences, even if they're bad. I'm not saying that it sucks to pay for a season pass : any work deserves a proper salary. But it's only natural that we want our content to be enjoyable.

As for the update release... We'll have to see next weekend I believe ! The aforementioned feedbacks about the new guns aren't exactly reassuring, especially regarding the Crossboom which I hoped would be as ludicrously fun as the Tommyboom and the Kaboomstick... As well as the Sentinel, which seemed like a refreshing weapon. Oh well, at least they can still be tweaked upon release !

 

[Arcames]

Whoever came up with the design of the supply backpack, and brought it to life, is on the right path of kf grit Thank you ~

 

[SipcoGames]

I'm assuming it will be a no, but was wondering if there will be any opportunity to get the season pass 2 during the beta at any point to use the new dlc weapons legit during it? I try to stream and show off the new weapons in community betas, but I know a lot of the players who hop in would rather have the server be ranked than de-ranked.

Either way excited for the new content

 

[simplecat]

Worth to mention that Inferno skill wasn't reworked - it was expanded. It is still retains its previous features: 50% more damage and snare power in ZED Time. Now it also spreads DOT.

HRG Head Hunter from what it says in description is all about doing damage to heads, but that Wave damage it emits with secondary mode, does not really damage any heads as all damage goes to body.

 

[Aleflippy]

Whoever came up with the design of the supply backpack, and brought it to life, is on the right path of kf grit Thank you ~

It's definitely a breath of fresh air considering the large amount of comical (if not downright ridiculous) cosmetic items we've had for the past few years, yeah ! But on the flipside, I don't want all my characters to look like military

Honestly, just simple outfits can work wonders sometimes ! New hoodies, shirts, shoes and what not... I'd like to give Ana all kinds of punk outfits dammit !

 

[OnionBubs]

Worth to mention that Inferno skill wasn't reworked - it was expanded. It is still retains its previous features: 50% more damage and snare power in ZED Time. Now it also spreads DOT.

Interesting. I hadn't gotten around to testing it myself but it did seem odd they would basically swap the preexisting skill for a second Napalm; I wondered if I had been missing something.

HRG Head Hunter from what it says in description is all about doing damage to heads, but that Wave damage it emits with secondary mode, does not really damage any heads as all damage goes to body.

You're certain that the alt-fire blast does body damage? Because I've definitely seen it decapitate creatures by appearances; I'm not really sure what to make of this thing but I was curious if that effect was cosmetic.

If that's the case then that would change a few things and I'd need to note it in my post.

 

[simplecat]

Inferno, from what it looks, provides overall more DOT damage than Napalm. On Firebug's wiki page there a note on how it works.
Exploding head is a cosmetic effect for when ZED dies to body health.

 

[OnionBubs]

Inferno, from what it looks, provides overall more DOT damage than Napalm. On Firebug's wiki page there a note on how it works.
Exploding head is a cosmetic effect for when ZED dies to body health.

Fair enough on both accounts, thank you for elaborating.

 

[Arcames]

It's definitely a breath of fresh air considering the large amount of comical (if not downright ridiculous) cosmetic items we've had for the past few years, yeah ! But on the flipside, I don't want all my characters to look like military

Honestly, just simple outfits can work wonders sometimes ! New hoodies, shirts, shoes and what not... I'd like to give Ana all kinds of punk outfits dammit !

Are you saying you don't like bullpup Lewis and Masterson?

Jokes aside, I agree, simple changes can do wonders, doesn't always have to be large cosmetic of sorts (such as backpacks or masks). Each character should have cosmetic restrictions as well - tied to their personal style. It makes sense for Foster to wear anything business related whereas Ana might prefer punk or darkly inclined fashion. Military items should make sense to all of them tho

 

[Eradan]

To opt into this beta on Steam, join the "preview" branch available in the Beta drop-down list. Admins will need to use the following SteamCMD flag:

• app_update 232130 -beta preview

To opt into this beta on EGS, the Beta will be accessible within KF2 owners’ game libraries as a separate install called “Killing Floor 2 Beta”. Users may need to restart their EGS launcher for the Beta to populate and be accessible to install. Progress for stats and inventory is shared between both versions on EGS so for users switching between Beta and Live be sure to sync your game data to use the latest timestamp to prevent any lost progress from participating in the Beta. The Beta on EGS also includes its own dedicated server within the install folder for your own personal hosting needs for this version.

Event
Tidal Terror

• Off the coast of Scotland in the East Shetland Basin of the North Sea, we’ve located a secret research lab hidden away in an oil drilling rig. We can only imagine what horrors the Patriarch and his cohorts have been up to here in this remote location. By the way, if you are one of those people who like to try different weapons, we have a new weekly mode for you, Arsenal Ascent, in which you will be swapping weapons as you kill Zeds. And if that weren't enough, the Horzine Research Group just released two new products, the HRG Head Hunter and the HRG Crossboom, for Sharpshooter and Demolitionist mercs respectively. Hurry up and take a look!
• Beta 1 Start 05/11/2022, (Date is subject to change)

New Additions and Highlights

• 1 New Community Map
  • Rig
    
    • Compatible with Survival, Weekly, and Endless Game Modes.
    • Fight against Zeds in this oil platform in the middle of the ocean.
• 1 New Weekly Mode
  • Arsenal Ascent
    
    • Players start with a knife and obtain new weapons by killing Zeds.
    • Each new weapon increases the “Weapon Level”.
    • The new weapon is randomly chosen from a list per Weapon Level.
    • Waves are endless until a player reaches the final Weapon Level and completes the wave. Then, the final wave is unlocked, which is a boss wave.
• 4 New Weapons
  • HRG Crossboom for the Demolitionist
    
    • An alternative version of the Crossbow for the Demolitionist Perk.
    • A tier 3 weapon that shoots strong explosive bolts.
    • The secondary fire makes a bigger explosion with reduced damage, perfect for getting weaker Zeds out of the way.
    • Trader price is 900 Dosh.
  • HRG Head Hunter for the Sharpshooter
    
    • An alternative version of the Hemogoblin for the Sharpshooter Perk.
    • A tier 3 semi-automatic weapon that shoots darts that enlarge Zeds’ heads.
    • The secondary fire uses energy to launch an expansive wave that damages enlarged heads.
    • Trader price is 1100 Dosh.
  • Sentinel for the Commando (Not available for purchase individually during BETA)
    
    • This is a paid DLC weapon. This weapon can be shared amongst players through our weapon-sharing system.
    • An autonomous drone equipped with a full-auto barrel is treated as a tier 3 weapon.
    • Alt-fire detonates the drone.
    • The drone also self-detonates when it runs out of ammo and a Zed passes nearby.
    • Trader price is 500 Dosh.
  • Reducto Ray for the Survivalist (Not available for purchase individually during BETA)
    
    • This is a paid DLC weapon. This weapon can be shared amongst players through our weapon-sharing system.
    • A tier 3 weapon that shoots an energy ray that shrinks Zeds and kills them by triggering an “evisceration death”.
    • Shrunk Zeds are more vulnerable to damage.
    • Trader price is 1200 Dosh.
• New Steam Achievements
  • Rig related achievements
• Time-limited Objectives, Tickets, and Cosmetics (Not available during BETA)
  • Seasonal objectives related to Rig
  • Complete all seasonal objectives to earn the Deep Sea Trident Backpack
  • Summer Sideshow Prize Tickets
  • Summer Sideshow Golden Prize Tickets
• Zedconomy (Not available for purchase during BETA)
  • Sentinel Weapon Bundle
  • Reducto Ray Weapon Bundle
• Tidal Terror Weapon Bundle
• Deep-Sea Explorer Outfit Bundle
• Premium Summer Sideshow Ticket Bundles come in three sets of tiers:
  • Bronze - 5 Premium Seasonal Tickets
  • Silver - 10 Premium Seasonal Tickets and 1 Bonus Golden Seasonal Ticket
  • Gold - 20 Premium Seasonal Tickets and a 3 Bonus Golden Seasonal Tickets
• Neon MK VIII Weapon Skin Bundle Pack
• Classic Weapon Skin Bundle Pack
• Deep-Sea Skin Weapon Skin Bundle Pack
• Chameleon Weapon Skin Bundle Pack
• Killing Floor 2 - Armory Season Pass 2
• Killing Floor 2 - Ultimate Edition
• Killing Floor 2 - Ultimate Edition Upgrade

Beta 1 for this update contains a lot of exciting new features! As such, feedback is going to be incredibly important. Stay tuned for a link to a survey where you, the community, will be able to provide your feedback directly to us! Thank you!

Addressed Community Feedback
As mentioned in the 2021 Killing Floor 2 ‘State of the Game’ our goal is to bring to the community a continued stream of QOL changes for each update throughout the year. Please continue to report any QOL changes you believe should be added to the game by submitting your feedback in the ‘general’ section on our official forums at: https://forums.tripwireinteractive.com/forum/killing-floor-2


General

• Survivalist Perk
  • Option to choose base grenade and initial weapon
    
  • The initial weapon will be granted only at the beginning of the match.
  • The base grenade will be granted at the beginning of the match, but can also be changed during trader time.
  • Perk level 15 adds Medic Grenade or Molotov Cocktail to the rotation, depending on the perk skill choice.
• New order rules in the Weapon Skin section in the inventory.
  • First ordered by trader price, then rarity (common to precious), then quality (battle-scarred to mint).

Balance

• Weapons
  • FAMAS Masterkey
    • Alt-fire spread decreased by 20%
    • Alt-fire fire rate increased from 50 RPM to 78 RPM
    • Alt-fire animation speed increased by 70%
  • Minigun
    • Movement speed when winding up increased 12.5%
    • Movement speed when firing increased 500%
    • Rotation speed when firing increased 105%
    • Reload speed increased 20%
    • Equip speed increased 30%
    • Put Away speed increased 30%
• Perks
  • Firebug
    • Inferno (level 25 skill)
      • Rework of the skill.
      • New functionality is: During Zed time, your fire damage over time spreads to all surrounding Zeds.

Designer Notes :

Survivalists had to rely on randomness every time they started a match, but that is over. Now, Survivalists can choose their initial weapon and grenade on the Perk screen. We have left the “random option” available for those who prefer it. In addition to that, for Level 15+ Survivalists, the Medic Grenade or the Molotov Cocktail will be added to the rotation, depending on whether the player has chosen the “Ammo Vest” or “Weapon Harness” skill. But players can keep choosing another grenade if they want. Finally, as the grenade is linked to the perk skill, and this can be changed during trader time, players will also be able to change their grenade during this time, keeping the number of grenades they already had.

The order in the Weapon Skin section in the inventory was a bit chaotic, with different skins of different weapons mixed. We have added some rules to improve it, and now you will see all the skins of the same weapon grouped together. The skins will be ordered by weapon trader price, then rarity (common to precious), and then quality (battle-scarred to mint).

Regarding balance, we have made adjustments in two weapons, keeping in mind the community feedback. For the FAMAS Masterkey, we have increased the fire rate for the alt-fire (shotgun fire), which was very slow to use, and it was hard to swap between alt-fire and main fire. Now you can shoot faster, and combine main fire and alt-fire better, making this weapon more versatile and dynamic in play style. We also have slightly adjusted the spread, which will help to improve the effectiveness of the weapon.

The other balanced weapon is the Minigun. The main disadvantages of this weapon were its mobility restrictions, so that’s what we’ve been focusing on. Now, you will have the same firepower as before, but you will be able to move and reload faster.

Finally, we have made a complete rework of the Inferno perk skill for the Firebug. We expect that now this skill performs better than the previous one, creating a good alternative to the other Firebug level 25 skill, Pyromaniac.


Bug Fixes
Also mentioned in the 2021 Killing Floor 2 ‘State of the Game’ our goal is to bring to the community a continued stream of community-reported bug fixes for each update throughout the year. Please continue to report any bugs you discover by visiting our official forums at: https://forums.tripwireinteractive.com/forum/killing-floor-2 and posting in the ‘PC’ or ‘Console’ sections.

Map:

• Netherhold - Improved the collision in the Hellfire Pit area.
• Dystopia - Improved the collision in the Hotel area.
• Moonbase - Fixed the distorted reflections in the Living Quarter Dome
• Caillon Hamlet
  • Fixed multiple blood splatter issues in the City Hall area.
  • Improved the lighting in the map lobby.
  • Fixed an issue where SYG zones were not appearing in Endless Mode.
  • Improved the draw distance of multiple objects in the Station area.
• Elysium
  • Updated the zed spawning nodes during the boss fight to prevent pop-in spawning.
  • Fixed an issue where player location in the main arena could delay the boss spawn.

Weapons:

• HRG Kaboom Stick - Improved the visuals in 1P & 3P.
• Minigun - Updated the reload animation to address clipping.
• Corrupter Carbine - Alt-fire now properly interrupts the reload animation.
• Seal Squeal - Fixed an issue where nuke damage was applying an overly large DoT.
• Helios Rifle - Fixed the desync issue between the bash attack animation and the impact.
• Crossbow - Fixed an issue where in 1P the cable anchor pulley was not attached to the limb.

Localization:

• Updated the text for the Gunslinger’s Skill “Steady” so the description now fits within the text box in all languages.

Weekly Outbreak:

• Boss Rush - Removed Holdout maps from the mode during map travel.
• Shrunken Heads - Updated the Abomination and Patriarch’s audio to play the correctly filtered lines for the mode.
• Fixed an issue where the weekly outbreak was not updating after map travel or server restart.

General:

• Fixed an issue where the player’s weapon would not reappear in their hands when performing an emote during a boss’s death scene.

As always, thank you for your continued support!

You forgot to say that the new weekly is for Survivalists only. It would have been fun with each perks having a dedicated weapon list, but as it is it is worthless.