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Killing Floor 2: The Chop Til' You Drop Christmas Beta Is Here For PC!

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 for your own personal hosting needs for this version.

Event
Chop Til’ You Drop
  • Hey mercs, how’s the holiday shopping going? If you need some extra dosh, there’s an easy solution, keep killing Zeds of course! For that, we suggest you visit the new map, Carillon Hamlet, a small town that was preparing for the holiday until a bunch of obnoxious elves burst into their production line. Additionally, you can try the 2 new weekly modes that will challenge your killing skills: face all the bosses in a row in the Boss Rush, or experience Shrunken Heads where headshots will not be an option. Finally, The Horzine Research Group has launched a new product on the market for this Christmas campaign, the HRG Stunner, a new handy tool to help the SWAT mercs shine.
  • Beta 1 Start 11/16/2021

New Additions and Highlights
  • 1 New Community Map
    • Carillon Hamlet
      CarillonHamlet04.jpg
      • Compatible with Survival, Weekly, and Endless Game Modes.
      • An industrial small village that is preparing for the holiday season.
Visit the train station, the chapel, the market and factory with its underground tunnels.
  • 2 New Weekly Modes
    • Boss Rush
      BossRush.jpg
      • Five consecutive boss waves.
      • Each boss will be selected randomly, but without repeating any of them along the five waves.
      • The difficulty of each boss scales up each wave.
      • A certain amount of set dosh is granted after each wave.

  • Shrunken Heads
    ShrunkenHeads.jpg
    • Players and Zeds will spawn with a tiny head, the reverse of the Bobble Zed weekly mode.
    • Headshots no longer apply critical damage.
    • Some Zeds will have new vulnerable spots. An indicator FX is displayed to point out these spots.
    • Squad composition is slightly adjusted to have a higher rate of Rioters, Gorefiends and Scrakes.
    • Zeds spawn 50% faster but the total amount of Zeds is reduced by 20%.
  • 2 New Weapons
    • HRG Stunner for the SWAT
      HRGStunner.png
      • An alternative version of the AA-12 Auto Shotgun for the SWAT Perk.
      • A tier 4 full-automatic weapon that shoots 12-gauge steel slug rounds.
      • The secondary fire consumes several rounds to fire a concentrated flashbang shot that explodes, stunning the enemies.
      • Trader price is 1500 Dosh.
    • Doshinegun as an off-perk weapon (Not available for purchase individually during BETA)
      Doshgun.png
      • This is a paid DLC weapon. This weapon can be shared amongst players through our weapon sharing system.
      • A tier 2 off-perk weapon that works in semi-automatic or full-automatic fire modes.
      • It literally shoots dosh stacks that behave like a blunt projectile and leave a dosh pickup in the ground.
      • The weapon does not count with spare ammo reserves, instead it draws the ammo directly from the dosh reserves as a ratio of 25 Dosh per round or 500 dosh per full clip
      • Trader price is 600 Dosh.

Special Note for Steam & EGS Armory Season Pass Holders:
During the start of Beta 1 for Christmas 2021, the Inventory Weapon Skins tied to the new Doshinegun will be granted to all Armory Season Pass holders on Steam and EGS. This will unlock full access to this weapon and its associated variant skins for those Armory Season Pass holders that choose to opt-into the Beta update. As this new content is not present in the current non-beta live build, Armory Season Pass holders on Steam and EGS who don’t opt-in to the Beta will still receive these inventory skins but will appear with missing thumbnails, names, and descriptions that do not unlock anything in game or affect game behavior. Don’t be alarmed as these will appear as expected if you choose to opt-in Beta later, or wait until the Christmas Update is released in the live branch for final release.


  • New Steam Achievements
    • Carillon Hamlet related achievements
  • Time-limited Objectives, Tickets, and Cosmetics (Not available during BETA)
    • Seasonal objectives related to Carillon Hamlet
    • Complete all seasonal objectives to earn the Holiday Shopping Companion
    • Krampus Prize Tickets
    • Krampus Golden Prize Tickets
  • Zedconomy (Not available for purchase during BETA)
    • Doshinegun Weapon Bundle
    • Holiday Shopper Outfit Bundle
  • Chop Til' You Drop Full Gear Bundle
  • Premium Christmas 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
  • Alchemist Gear Cosmetic Bundle Pack
  • Alchemist Weapon Skin Bundle Pack
  • Christmas Weapon Skin Bundle Pack


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 2020 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
  • Endless game vote to pause
    • Vote to pause system implemented for endless game mode.
    • New “vote to pause” button included in main menu during trader time.
    • New “vote to resume” button included in main menu during paused games.
  • Improvements in the Aim assist for controllers
    • The auto aim assist has been improved and the range to detect the head as the aiming point has been increased.

Balance
  • Weapons
    • VLAD-1000 Nailgun
      • Ammo pool increased from 336 to 378
      • Default fire (multiple nails) spread decreased by 18.75%
      • Alt fire (single nail) spread decreased by 50%
      • Nail projectile speed increased by 25%
  • Perks
    • Survivalist
      • Make Things go Boom (level 20 skill)
        • Explosive resistance increased from 40% to 50%
        • Area of effect of all explosives increased from 40% to 50%
  • Bosses
    • King Fleshpound
      • Walking and sprinting speed increased by 15%
      • Shield scale increased by 10%
      • Ground pound damage increased by 10%
      • Beam range increased by 20%
      • Beam damage increased by 20%
      • Phase thresholds changed from 65% / 50% / 20% to 75% / 60% / 30%
    • Abomination
      • Sprinting speed increased by 15%
      • Vomit range by 10%
      • Abomination sub-spawn delay reduced from 2 to 1.5 seconds
      • Fart attack timers reduced for all difficulties by about 2 seconds
      • Fart attack timers while raged reduced for all difficulties by about 0.75 seconds
      • Bloat mine projectile speed increased by 50%
    • Abomination Sub-Spawn
      • Health reduced from 250 to 150
      • Explosion damage reduced by 20%

Designer Notes :

We know that endless games can be a huge time commitment, so we included the option to pause the game If every player agrees the waves will not be resumed, allowing players to have a break for whatever necessities. The option will be available only during trader time online. The system to resume the waves will be similar, with a vote of all players confirming.

The auto-aiming system for controllers was not working as expected under some specific circumstances. Sometimes when aiming slightly above the head the system used to auto-aim to the body center instead of the head. We have increased the range of detection of the head to avoid this problem. With this adjustment, using a controller will feel more accurate and consistent to player expectations than before.

We made very slight adjustments on the VLAD-1000 Nailgun just to improve the feeling of the weapon in the Support hands. We think the weapon was in a good spot in terms of balance, but these small adjustments will make it more friendly to use for this perk.

Regarding the Survivalist perk skill “Make Things go Boom”, it was boosted to have similar values as the Demolitionist equivalent skill, as we think that the Survivalist deserves to have the same capacities.

Finally, we made some adjustments on two bosses that were less prefered to play against by many mercs, King Fleshpound and Abomination. We boost some of their stats, mostly focusing on making them more aggressive and giving more importance to the skills that make them unique.


  • For the King Fleshpound, we adjusted the health thresholds in which the boss will be able to use their skills (ground pound, beam and shield), and we boosted the stats of these.
  • For the Abomination, we boosted different skills to make its rage phases more dangerous, increasing the sprinting speed and the rate of farts and bloat mines. Regarding the sub-spawns you will notice an increase in their number but they will be weaker.



Bug Fixes
Also mentioned in the 2020 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
    • Fixed an issue where Zeds don’t attack players within the Diabolic Experiment doorway area.
    • Fixed an issue where the door into the Dining Hall clips into the wall.
    • Fixed a collision volume in the Lounge area near the archway.
  • Monster Ball - Fixed an issue where the dance floor music doesn’t play.
  • Sanitarium - Fixed an issue with boss pathing that would sometimes prevent them from pursuing players into the catacombs.

Weapons:
  • Piranha Pistols - Fixed an issue where the Rackem Up skill was not applying when wielding the single pistol
  • Minigun - Fixed an issue where turn speed after picking up the minigun remains slow at all times regardless of equipped weapon.
  • HRG Disruptor
    • Fix to animation of reload in 3rd person camera causing model stretching.

As always, thank you for your continued support!
 
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Good to see changes for these bosses, they are needed, but allow me to be critical here:

KFP:
  • Beam range increased by 20%
  • Beam damage increased by 20%
What exactly does it change when you literally can crouch under it? Why exactly are we even allowed to crouch under it? This balance change is making the boss harder at lower difficulties who don't know the trick, without addressing the fundamental issue with this attack at all.
Agree with the other changes, there's a chance the boss becomes decent now.

Abomination:
Abomination
  • Sprinting speed increased by 15%
  • Vomit range by 10%
  • Abomination sub-spawn delay reduced from 2 to 1.5 seconds
  • Fart attack timers reduced for all difficulties by about 2 seconds
  • Fart attack timers while raged reduced for all difficulties by about 0.75 seconds
  • Bloat mine projectile speed increased by 50%
I think you underestimate how hard this boss gets destroyed in HoE, and my guess is that it will still be an easy fight despite these changes. The fundamental issue with this boss is that it gets stunlocked to death by losing every piece of armor and getting up too slowly, players can kill it before it can even use its attacks. I agree with other changes though I just think it needs more.

Patriarch:

...

Wait, no change for patriarch?? Almost every HoE match Patriarch gets killed before it can use its 1st syringe:


Please make him use his first syringe more quickly or increase his health.
 
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What exactly does it change when you literally can crouch under it? Why exactly are we even allowed to crouch under it? This balance change is making the boss harder at lower difficulties who don't know the trick, without addressing the fundamental issue with this attack at all.
Agree with the other changes, there's a chance the boss becomes decent now.
You won't be fighting the KFP on even terrain all the time, Depending on the map, you can still get hit by the KFP laser regardless if you're crouching or not.
 
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VLAD-1000 Nailgun
  • Ammo pool increased from 336 to 378
  • Default fire (multiple nails) spread decreased by 18.75%
  • Alt fire (single nail) spread decreased by 50%
  • Nail projectile speed increased by 25%
Jeeeeeeezus. It wasn't even bad on Support, just situational, and now it's even more god-tier on Zerk.

Survivalist
  • Make Things go Boom (level 20 skill)
    • Explosive resistance increased from 40% to 50%
    • Area of effect of all explosives increased from 40% to 50%
lmao ok i guess

I'd rather people just play Demolitionist with C4
 
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Adding to this:

Doshinegun is funny but gimmicky; HRG Stunner is underwhelming at least right now but maybe I'll find something better on it down the line.

My thoughts on the Doshinegun can be found in this thread since it would be too much for a comment-type post.

The HRG Stunner, in all honesty, feels like a retread of the Tommy Gun problem: the recoil and spread combined with low damage-per-shot and slow firing rate for a SWAT gun make it hard to recommend over SWAT's other options.

The alt-fire stun blast has a deceptively tiny effective radius that more or less requires direct hits to stun Zeds; from my testing it's about as small as an M16 nade or Seeker 6 missile blast. The stun blast itself is less powerful than a SWAT's throwable flashbang, taking 2 hits on Scrakes and non-raged FPs to proc stun.

It can half-mag Scrakes but you have to land every shot on a very inaccurate weapon to kill them quickly. Fleshpounds take far too long to kill and still take most of the mag at T5.

It's fine at killing trash, but...it's SWAT. Nothing on SWAT lacks for killing trash, and the HRG Nailgun seems more consistent at killing HVTs once you learn how to handle it.

The VLAD is now overtuned for both perks. Tight Choke basically makes it a sniper rifle on Support, and it's better on Berserker especially since it can single-shot snipe more effectively which lets you dispose of trash and Husks all the better.
 
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How about a speed boost? something that makes a difference in that perk to make it preferable over other perks?
Because they wanted to give Survivalist the same explosive-related capacities as Demo for players that use Demo weapons, right in the patch notes.

Also, no more speed boosts. Please. Especially because you could stack this speed boost with the Melee speed boost to play Ultimate Jogging Floor and this game needs waaaaaaaaaaaaay less of that.
 
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Make commando to run faster :) every old player will tell you - this perk is literally useless in 99.9 % of the situations , all perks can fight without him and its 100% death vs any boss from suicide and above ...
First-day player from Early Access checking in for this.

Commando right now is one of the strongest perks in the game on even a semi-coordinated team and it has one of the best Swiss Army loadouts in the game with the (HMTech-401 and FN-FAL). The only partially correct statement is that Commando is not the ideal perk for bossing, but it's absolutely not 100% a guaranteed loss if you're the last man standing. Although if you are LMS as Commando, something went dreadfully wrong and the team probably earned the loss anyway.

Your assertions are fractally wrong. There is no reason to "make Commando to run faster." In fact, fewer perks need to be "made to run faster" because speed boosted perks are unhealthy for this game and making all of them faster is a terrible way to balance them.
 
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2 minor things:
- Compound Bow's cry explosion causes self damage to player, since it was buffed not a long time ago (damage 25 -> 75) it can now hurt you really bad (up to 37 health on HoE)
- Seasonal challenge Heads for Sale (decapitate 1000 ZEDs) tells that you need to decapitate ZEDs but in fact it only works if you kill them by headshot. Making headless ZEDs wonder around will not work.

As for Doshinegun, please don't nerf it by removing current perk bonuses, instead it needs a buff so all damage bonuses of all perks would work with it.
 
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  • Abomination
    • Sprinting speed increased by 15%
    • Vomit range by 10%
    • Abomination sub-spawn delay reduced from 2 to 1.5 seconds
    • Fart attack timers reduced for all difficulties by about 2 seconds
    • Fart attack timers while raged reduced for all difficulties by about 0.75 seconds
    • Bloat mine projectile speed increased by 50%
Sigh... this avenue of 'balancing' has always been problematic as it exacerbates the gulf between the 'slow' perks and the rest.

The Abomination was actually somewhat of a challenge when it first came in and on the tighter maps remains so. HOWEVER, it seems this and numerous other 'fixes' are decided based upon maxed out perks and maps which are 'user-friendly'.

I imagine this won't gain any traction but, I propose that during the Boss waves the teams are locked within a small area so the whole kiting strategy becomes null-and-void.
This would - in theory - narrow the gap between those which use hit-and-run tactics and those more reliant on standing their ground. Also the speed buffs Zeds have received could be rolled back further contributing to the viability of perks which atm struggle in certain situations.

All-in-all KF2 is not the only game that can be exploited by running about but hopefully something can be implemented to minimise its prevalence.
 
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There is no reason to "make Commando to run faster." In fact, fewer perks need to be "made to run faster" because speed boosted perks are unhealthy for this game and making all of them faster is a terrible way to balance them.

I double that. The speed bonuses should be nerfed down, specifically to around twice less values, specifically for zerk, survivalist, medic and now SWAT.
 
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