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[b]World’s Finest Update[/b]
Agents, it’s finally time, a new season is coming your way. This update brings not only a continuation of the overhaul initiative with new tweaks, gameplay changes and quality of life improvements. Here’s what you can expect at a glance:
- A new agent: [b]Vigil[/b]
- A new [b]Superhero themed catalo[/b]g with 50 levels of unlocks
- Major changes to npc behavior and the extraction meta
- A boatload of fixes, tweaks and updates to all aspects of the game.
[b]Prepared for any situation[/b]
Vigil joins the cast as the newest agent, bringing a large toolkit of tactical options and weaponry to the field. Vigil’s expertise are alternate weapons, each bringing unique utility from smoke bombs to stun guns and even aerial mobility.
In addition, Vigil’s passive abilities allow her to deploy small tactical devices that dramatically expand your options, allowing you to scout, trap and block your rivals in all-new ways.
Vigil represents the ideal of a master spy, having access to a wealth of high tech weaponry and tools that makes her a force to be reckoned with. You’ll never catch her unprepared.
[b]New Catalog: World’s Finest[/b]
Catalog 4 welcomes you in a world of super heroes and dastardly villains with 50 levels of unlocks for new heroic skins, inks, poses, calling cards and avatars.
Purchasing the premium catalog will give you instant access to our newest agent, Vigil, and exclusive rewards. [U]As a reminder, players can still buy Vigil with Credits earned by simply playing[/U].
[b]General
Account Level Raised to 600[/b]
It’s finally time to raise the level cap and chase a new progression Ink: The Hematite ink!
[b]Changes to free catalog track[/b]
Since launch, we have allowed players who purchased previous catalog to keep them forever and spend tokens in them, but free users have been locked to only progressing the current catalog.
We are now lifting this restriction entirely, allowing users that have not purchased a previous catalog to still spend their token in them to progress. We feel this is the natural extension of our commitment to having as few sources of missable content as possible for all players.
[b]Extraction Phase Changes
No more stalling[/b]
Briefcase scan will no longer stall the ping entirely, it only slows it down by 50% making it so the maximum time without a ping is 45 seconds instead of minutes when combined with exfil scanner, max intel and abilities from certain spies. We think this will make the playing field much more fair for everyone while keeping a distinct advantage to holding a scan.
[b]Nearest Extraction Logic Changes[/b]
The logic used to determine which extraction should be called when nobody is left in the match or the auto-call timer runs out used to be determined purely by distance. This was not representative of the most easily accessible extraction in a lot of cases, especially when verticality is involved.
From now on, the nearest extraction is based on a path from the navmesh, taking into account the length of the actual path to get there rather than raw distance.
[b]NPC behavior Changes[/b]
We have multiple upgrades to how NPC behave in a variety of different situations, so let’s get into it!
[b]Vault Priority[/b]
Once the vault opens, guards will now actively seek to enter, giving a much stealthier entrance for players and an easier to follow flow for the match.
[b]Better Combat Awareness[/b]
We have changed how we handle the “scared” status for NPCs in some pretty major ways this update. Previously, NPC would become scared when within the radius of a dangerous event. They could stop being scared after a certain period and look un-phased by a fight that is still on-going. This would lead to what some would call the “combat medic” behavior where some NPCS would rush in the middle of a fight to revive downed npc.
In this update, a room now knows that a fight takes place within it and notifies npc that are inside currently or that come inside during the fight. This has huge implications on gameplay:
- NPC won’t stop being scared in a long fight and as such, won’t start reviving other npcs.
- A NPC that enters a room with a fight ongoing will instantly become scared and try to leave instead of walking in the middle of the fight.
- Players entering a room with a fight inside in cover will have their npc become reliably scared to better blend in with the surroundings.
- Increased base cursor speed
- Added a “Gamepad Menu Cursor Sensitivity” setting in controller settings.
- Added a “Gamepad Menu Scroll Sensitivity” setting in controller settings.
- Improved Scroll speed vs Input magnitude. Lower input will scroll slower and maximum inputs will scroll faster for more control.
- Right Analog stick can now scroll horizontal items.
- Right analog stick taps will increase/decrease sliders by a single unit at a time.
- Right analog stick held more than .25 seconds will continually increase/decrease sliders with a speed based on the magnitude of the input.
- For keyboard users, A,D, Left and Right keys can be used to scroll sliders when hovered in a similar way.
[b]Change to anonymous mode[/b]
To make it easier for players to know another player is anonymizing their name, we are changing the naming convention for anonymous players to be “SecretAgent-XYZ” with the last part being a random number between 0 and 999.
This will make it easier to identify if someone is anonymous and will help with reports for repeat offenders that change names to evade possible actions.
[b]XP Boosters for credits[/b]
To help our most dedicated players get through the long echelon grind, we are adding the option for players to spend their credits to acquire XP booster right from the main menu at the cost of 1000 credits per booster.
We intend this to be a “high level” player credits sink and less of a way to skip early progression which is how we settled on this price.
[b]VIP guard Escort[/b]
Following the thwarting of the Jatimania by pesky spies, VIP are raising their security protocols. From now on, guards will escort VIP around the map, making sure they are safe.
This can be used to a player’s advantage as a VIP disguise will also work to attract guards escorting you around. This can also be used in team modes to follow your VIP disguised friend with a guard disguise. We hope you’ll enjoy this new addition that makes VIPs more interesting to encounter.
[b]Pinging Rival Gadgets[/b]
The ping has been updated to allow players to point out enemy gadgets to their teammates. This used to be a very painful situation in teams with no voice comms so we hope this will help our team play quite a bit!
[b]UI Overhaul[/b]
Additional work has been put into continuing to upgrade the UI experience both in and out of matches.
- Revamped Allies HUD in team modes including a counter per teammate for the amount of revives.
- Continued work across HUDS and menu legibility.
- Continued work on improving the look and feel of HUDS and menus.
- Lost and found boxes will now give XP when opened to be more in line with other game elements.
- XP cassettes 200 => 250XP
- Entering the vault 100 =>150 XP
- Package Capture 200 => 500XP
- Extracting bonus 100 => 500XP
- Extracting XP modifier 1.3 bonus XP => 1.5 bonus XP
[b]Objective Rooms Visibility Tweaks[/b]
In addition with these changes, we have revisited the Hard Sell, Diamond Spire and Silver Reef vault to block line of sights on the objective from elsewhere in the vault. The amount of visibility afforded to the room, especially in Hard Sell and Diamond Spire, would lead to long camping sessions and un-interesting interactions. Hiding the room will give more reason to push the initiative and take advantage of seeing from inside.
[b]Balance
General
Melee Delay After Shot[/b]
In season 2 we added the concept of a delay for shooting right after a melee that we could tweak per character. We had a blindspot for balancing on the opposite side: being able to melee the exact frame after a shot. With this update we have now added a small delay to give a bit more reaction time on the receiving end of such combos.
[b]Agents
Special Note: [/b]We have heard your feedback that the developer names we used (Weapon Mod 1 to refer to what the community calls weapon 2) were just confusing for the player base at large. Starting with this patch, we will be using your naming convention for agent notes.
[b]Ace[/b]
We recently raised all tracking abilities cooldowns to 40 seconds up from 30. We think this was a bit too much and are trying 35 seconds as a new metric for these abilities.
[b]Expertise
Expertise 1: Queen’s Gaze[/b]
- Cooldown 40s => 35s
- Cooldown 40s => 35s
- Passive charge will now start much sooner after a shot is fired.
- Charge times have been tweaked so that the total charge time is the same as before.
- Headshot damage 14 => 12
- Clue lifetime 2:30 => 2 minutes
- Cancel refund rate 50% => 65% of remaining time
- Chase duration at 1 clue 7s => 5s
- Chase duration at 2 clues 10s => 8s
- Cooldown 40s => 35s
- Can now investigate the trace left behind by the case carrier on a ping during the extraction phase.
- Breadcrumbs left behind on cover change have been increased from 10 seconds to 15, indirectly buffing this ability.
- Cooldown 40s => 35s
- Using tiger’s leap while carrying the package will give a faster buildup than walking to prevent strategies where tiger leaping non-stop gives a lot of distance before pinging.
- Larcin will now build up ping with the briefcase even when immaterial. No more stalling!
- Adjustment to spray pattern for a more “vertical” pattern instead of a wide one.
- Using any of Xiu’s expertise with the briefcase will accelerate the ping to half of the run speed value to make it a consideration without limiting it too much.
- Xiu will now keep her last valid npc to teleport to for a short duration if there are no valid targets in sight. This will prevent a situation where you try to teleport to a npc that becomes invalid at the exact moment, stopping you from teleporting.
- Maximum fire rate 8.1 => 9
- Refund chance when missing 10 intel 25% => 35%
- Refund chance when missing 20 intel 50% => 60%
- Tweaks to the scope mesh to make aiming in ADS easier.
- Headshot Damage 10 per kunai => 12 per kunai
- Bubble Duration 30s => 22s
- Cooldown now only starts when the bubble expires, preventing multiple bubbles in play.
- Damage per bullet 10(30 per burst) => 9 (27 per burst)
- Full charge time: 1s => .9s
- Deployed drone now has a lifetime of 45 seconds before breaking.
- Hack-Trap now leaves a clue that flickers every 6 seconds for rivals.
- Updated VFX to make sure the goo does not hide the pods, preventing counterplay.
- Scrambler now prevents hack-traps from triggering.
- Tripwires will start to become visible at 8 meters instead of 3 and fade in slowly from that point.
- Deployed shield now entirely blocks everyone and everything, no more shield dance inside the shield.
- Deployed shield now takes .5 seconds to fully materialize, allowing you to walk through it during that time.
- Deployed shield shield can now be dismantled when interacting with it from up close. This works the same way as picking up your own gadget, but will destroy the shield instead.
- The cover of a spy won’t talk or scream anymore when that spy is out of cover.
- Heat system has been entirely re-factored to be more robust, fixing a variety of issues with stuck heat levels and incorrect values.
- Fixed an issue where the neutralized status effect would sometimes still allow an agent to trigger their expertise.
- Fixed instances of major desync between npc position and the undercover spy leading to weird positions after blowing cover.
- Fixed an issue where open doors could interfere with other interactions.
- Fixed an issue with melee attack that made the auto-targeting unreliable in close quarters (which is quite unfortunate for a melee attack).
- Performance passes to reduce the cost of NPC vs audio occlusion raycasts.
- Multiple fixes to the neutralize status effect, resulting in a much more reliable experience all around.
- Fixed an issue that made loading screen tips flicker heavily.
- Fixed crouch speed sometimes being much slower than intended.
- Fixed an issue where sometimes burst weapons would miss a burst when mashing the input.
- Fixed an issue where triggering a stance expertise while holding a charge melee would cancel the expertise instantly.
- Bots will no longer be aggro-ed from players opening field upgrade chests from afar with a spyglass.
- Fixed an issue where spectator mode would not use the player’s camera sensitivity settings.
- Fixed an issue with the vault terminal UI indicator that would leave the icon permanently looking locked.
- All NPC can now sneeze.
- Ammo will no longer be faster to investigate than other items.
- The recon drone will no longer trigger “it’s a setup”, revealing its user from afar.
- Interactable clues left by an agent that dies and gets revived again will be cleansed to give them a fresh start.
- Shock Ray will now blow cover correctly.
- Static cage now benefits from the cooldown reduction given by energy syphon.
- Fixed Larcin’s iron sights being slightly mis-aligned.
- Grande finale’s description no longer mentions it being cancelable when it is not.
- Fixed animation issues with Larcin’s weapon in a variety of situations after going invisible.
- Fixed visibility issue with in-hand items when teleporting.
- Fixed twitching animations when Xiu is firing her weapons in third person.
- Nautilo’s sound effect will now match the fire rate for other players.
- Fixed an issue where redeploying in the pregame while under the effect of “make em’ fold” would leave the vfx stuck on the victim.
- Nautilo’s reticle will now be more visible against dark backgrounds.
- Fixed weird behavior of the “on the house” ability with level 4 intel..
- Fixed an issue that led to the kunai charging sound playing on every interaction
- Fixed sword slash vfx being visible through walls.
- Fixed poison vials sometimes being visible through walls.
- Squire’s fast reload animation has been tweaked to look better across all weapons.
- Fixed an issue that allowed Yu-Mi to run while charging her weapon.
- Fixed an issue where players could be locked out of using their active indefinitely after canceling it.
- Fixed an issue that led to the slingshot charging sound playing on every interaction.
- Fixed issues that would sometimes cause Yu-Mi’s projectile to hit objects below where she is aiming.
- Fixed a wide variety of un-sittable seats in all maps.
- Fixed multiple keycard spawn points clipping into meshes, leading to them being hard to see.
- Fixed tree collisions to make them closer to the visual.
- Fixed the globe clipping into the desk when activating the old fort shortcut.
- Fixed staff interacts clipping into furniture.
- Fixed plant clipping inside a sittable bench near the clock tower.
- Fixed multiple npc stuck spots.
- Fixed a invisible keycard spawn in vault bathroom
- Fixed a collision being too wide in the 3rd floor staff room above the auction hall.
- Moved some vault printers spawn to prevent them from being too close to each other.
- Fixed NPC stuck spot in some guard rooms.
- Fixed some instances of sea-weeds clipping into windows.
- Fixed a npc stuck spot in the tennis court.
- Fixed drawers that could spawn invisible keycards.
- Fixed an issue where the drone hud could stay stuck when swapping in and out of it quickly.
- Fixed aim-assist issues with deployed Umbrella shield, making it harder to hit than intended.
- Fixed the shield health bar not updating when recovering health in your hand.
- Fixed an issue where the Umbrella shield would sometimes wrongly absorb melee attacks that should hit the spy.
- Fixed an issue where holding the umbrella shield and hacking would create a state where the sound effects could stay stuck.
- Fixed mimicable items icons being visible through walls.
- Fixed an issue where the turret getting destroyed while players are aiming could zoom out their camera.
