[MSE_Karen]

The Council Apocalypse campaign came with lots of new bosses and spectacular attacks that were dragging down some systems' framerates. Many of these optimizations happen quite deep in the engine code so it has taken the QA team longer than usual to test.



GAME LOGIC IMPROVEMENTS

- Parallelized collision detection code.
- Overall memory usage reduction.
- Code optimizations for some FX transformations (scaling and material swaps).
- Parallelized sphere hit detection code.
- Reduced the amount of hit colliders in some common objects (shields, parrots and airships).
- Created lighter versions for the enemy prop ships flying in the background on some missions.


AI IMPROVEMENTS

- Implemented smart time limits for decision makers.
- Parallelized task assignment code.
- Removed some redundant events in enemy animations.
- Implemented variable caching for the enemy horde manager.


GAMEPLAY

Along with the many tech changes, some new "under the hood" gameplay systems have been implemented. We now have more power to tune mission difficulty server-side. In this first iteration, our focus is on low MMR matches. Low MMR matches sometimes have a very slow pace, with too few enemies around. We are increasing enemy spawn rates and lowering AI skill a little bit to bring the game a bit more action and, hopefully, not modify the difficulty curve too much in the process. Veteran players will notice these changes mostly on mentor matches.

- Increased enemy spawn rate at low difficulty levels.
- AI behaves more permissively at low difficulty levels.
- Decreased enemy damage at low difficulty levels.




MISSIONS

As we mentioned in the patch notes for 10.3, the Council Apocalypse campaign released a bit too strong. The following changes tackle problems in mission duration mostly.


IN SHOCK

- The Fifth Council now sends Elite Snipers to join the troops protecting Dr. Kuzmann's expedition.
- Kuzmann's levers now require time to activate.

THE MOUSE AND THE SNAKE

- Reduced the health of all Beholders by 15%.
- Reduced regenerating beholder's regeneration speed by 40%.
- Reduced Valeria's health by 20%.


UPSIDE DOWN

- Reduced the time required to activate the trojan by 20%.
- Reduced Dr. Kuzmann's health by 15%.
- Increased the time Dr. Kuzmann stays stunned by 10%.
- Increased enemy spawn frequency by 10% when not playing against an antagonist.


MIND OVER MATTER

- Reduced the Council's health by 10%.
- Reduced the amount of enemy kills the Council requires for examination by about 10%.



WEAPONS

SCHNEIDER

- Decreased Rain of Fire's damage by 10%.


H.I.V.E.

- Decreased Shy's damage by 10%.


DOLDREN

- Increased JK-5's damage by 10%.


HAREC

- Increased Ferox Impetus' damage by 10%.



BUG FIXES

- Fixed a bug on The Beast's Lair where the game could crash due to a memory leak.
- Fixed a bug on The Enemy Within where the game could crash for the host the first time Uras-Beherit's weak points were exposed.
- Fixed a bug where the game could crash where entering a match.
- Fixed a bug where the game could crash when healing Lycus with his shield activated.
- Fixed a bug where the menu could block after reconnecting to a game.
- Fixed a bug when receiving rewards where the menu could block.
- Fixed a bug on In Shock where some enemy ships were not reaching their destination and enemies were not been deployed. - Fixed a bug where aiming was not working property while in cover.
- Fixed a bug where Valeria's quantum projectile was not appearing correctly after a host renegotiation.
- Fixed several bugs caused by hot renegotiations.
- Fixed a bug where the AI was not selecting cover properly.
- Fixed several VFX bugs on Kuzmann's Surgeon skin.
- Fixed several FX bugs.
- Fixed several language issues.

[Tekato]

You guys definitely fixed the matchmaking, or at least for antagonist. So far all ny matches this morning have had an antagonist 6/6 matches. Awesome so much fun.

[Level9Drow]

Awesome!! Can't wait to try it out when I get home!

Thanks for the update and hard work!

[Tekato]

Not sure if this is a good or bad thing but I haven't gotten any mentor matches sincet this update. Either way the matchmaking has been on point so far placing me in matches with players near my lv and mmr. Seems like a great update even if the antag matches have increased for me.

[Hiero_Glyph]

Not sure if this is a good or bad thing but I haven't gotten any mentor matches sincet this update. Either way the matchmaking has been on point so far placing me in matches with players near my lv and mmr. Seems like a great update even if the antag matches have increased for me.

Mentor matches are still a mess. I wanted to try the updated In Shock and had a mentor match with two level 1 players and a level 72 antag. The added snipers are pointless in the first part and just add another reason to stay in cover, as if the behemoth's lockon wasn't enough encouragement already.

For the Kuzman boss fight MSE changed the levers to require holding them like on Low Blow. This makes pulling them tedious and the antag has several seconds to down you while you are stuck interacting with them. So not only do you need to pull Kuzman away from the switches, have to deal with adds, but now you take several seconds to flip each switch so the entire process is just tedious now.

This of course doesn't factor in the level 1 players who always get shocked and require you breaking line of sight with them. And let's not forget about the antag who can wait patiently until you are helpless.

I'm honestly amazed we made it as far as we did considering one of the newbies quit, only to realize that they couldn't play another game until this one was over so they eventually came back. I doubt these players will stick around very long when the game punishes them like this and I can't say I blame them. The game has no in-game tutorial, it doesn't give them time to learn the mechanics, and it forces them into antag matches most of the time. Mentor matches are a waste of time for the 20% extra experience you get.

[Skyline]

Thanks for bugfix ; But we still wait a bit others fixes and solutions .

[Tekato]

Not sure if this is a good or bad thing but I haven't gotten any mentor matches sincet this update. Either way the matchmaking has been on point so far placing me in matches with players near my lv and mmr. Seems like a great update even if the antag matches have increased for me.

Mentor matches are still a mess. I wanted to try the updated In Shock and had a mentor match with two level 1 players and a level 72 antag. The added snipers are pointless in the first part and just add another reason to stay in cover, as if the behemoth's lockon wasn't enough encouragement already.

For the Kuzman boss fight MSE changed the levers to require holding them like on Low Blow. This makes pulling them tedious and the antag has several seconds to down you while you are stuck interacting with them. So not only do you need to pull Kuzman away from the switches, have to deal with adds, but now you take several seconds to flip each switch so the entire process is just tedious now.

This of course doesn't factor in the level 1 players who always get shocked and require you breaking line of sight with them. And let's not forget about the antag who can wait patiently until you are helpless.

I'm honestly amazed we made it as far as we did considering one of the newbies quit, only to realize that they couldn't play another game until this one was over so they eventually came back. I doubt these players will stick around very long when the game punishes them like this and I can't say I blame them. The game has no in-game tutorial, it doesn't give them time to learn the mechanics, and it forces them into antag matches most of the time. Mentor matches are a waste of time for the 20% extra experience you get.

Wow that sounds terrible the switches were already difficult enough to pull all 3 without getting shocked to death. Looks like we'll have to add this one to the easy antagonist mission list.

[Level9Drow]

They will probably fix the switches.

[Hiero_Glyph]

They will probably fix the switches in 7 months.

Fixed.

[Tekato]

They will probably fix the switches in 7 months.

Fixed.

They've been pushing out updates pretty frequently so I'm sure it won't take that long.

[Nemo]

GAMEPLAY

Along with the many tech changes, some new "under the hood" gameplay systems have been implemented. We now have more power to tune mission difficulty server-side. In this first iteration, our focus is on low MMR matches. Low MMR matches sometimes have a very slow pace, with too few enemies around. We are increasing enemy spawn rates and lowering AI skill a little bit to bring the game a bit more action and, hopefully, not modify the difficulty curve too much in the process. Veteran players will notice these changes mostly on mentor matches.

- Increased enemy spawn rate at low difficulty levels.
- AI behaves more permissively at low difficulty levels.
- Decreased enemy damage at low difficulty levels.

What do you mean by 'low MMR matches' exactly?

Missions that are less than 20-25% difficulty?

[MSE_Hellath]

GAMEPLAY

Along with the many tech changes, some new "under the hood" gameplay systems have been implemented. We now have more power to tune mission difficulty server-side. In this first iteration, our focus is on low MMR matches. Low MMR matches sometimes have a very slow pace, with too few enemies around. We are increasing enemy spawn rates and lowering AI skill a little bit to bring the game a bit more action and, hopefully, not modify the difficulty curve too much in the process. Veteran players will notice these changes mostly on mentor matches.

- Increased enemy spawn rate at low difficulty levels.
- AI behaves more permissively at low difficulty levels.
- Decreased enemy damage at low difficulty levels.

What do you mean by 'low MMR matches' exactly?

Missions that are less than 20-25% difficulty?

Yes, something in the 20-30%, progressively.