Welcome, Marauders
First and foremost for today's update, it’s time for the Wipe! Everyone, please close your game, and ensure you have received the update via Steam!
We’ve nicknamed this patch of the Excavation update 'Plunder' for a couple of reasons. Get ready for our newest game mode, where you get to masquerade as a Raider inside one of our POIs. Your sole goal is to get to the Escape pods before time runs out, it will be your choice what to do with other Raiders you meet along the way…
Raider Mode will see you thrown into one of our POIs, starting with Mining Frigate and the Merchant Cargo ship, as one of (up to) 6 other Raiders. You will be given a random loadout to help you survive, and you will be able to find a lot more green uncommon containers around the map than you would normally find. Once you reach the Escape Pods, you will be returned to your stash with the loot you found! We are looking forward to seeing the community's feedback on this new mode, so that we can build upon it going forward.
Another addition to the Plunder update is the ‘Bandit’, a Marauder’s universe equivalent to a “Loot Goblin”. Hunting this slippery NPC should feel quite different to your normal NPC engagements, and we know you are going to enjoy the loot!
One thing for everyone to note on this update is that we have INTENTIONALLY reset everyone's settings. This will include audio, video, controls, & keybindings. We apologize for the inconvenience, but it was necessary.
There is a bunch of new stuff to get into below, so on to the Patch Notes!
WIPE
We would like to reiterate that wipes are currently necessary during Early Access due to us still building/changing the core features of the game. It is not something we take lightly. That being said, the goal is to change how it works when we hit 1.0. What that looks like will be addressed before that day comes. All player data has now been reset, along with your audio, video, controls, and keybindings. All that should remain is your DLC unlocked cosmetics (Space Pirate, Steel Series, U.A. Ranger). We really do appreciate your patience and we hope this update will be even more fruitful than the last!
Raider Mode
Welcome to our first new mode, accessed through the cog next to the ‘Launch button’. We see this feature providing a unique experience, where around 6 solo Marauders (masquerading as raiders) are provided with a free loadout and the chance to find deadlier gear. With only 10 minutes of oxygen, you must decide to dash for the escape pods or die trying.
This mode takes place in either the Mining Frigate or Merchant Ship, doesn't have raid missions or NPCs, but provides players with the ability to earn XP through Marauder kills. There is currently an 18 minute cooldown in place between Raider excursions, which starts ticking down at the beginning of your initial raid . This mode is not in its final form, and we look forward to your feedback, but we have been having an absolute blast playing it internally… Good luck!
Bandit (Loot Goblin) and the new Freebooter bag
This rare enemy can appear in Raider locations such as the Spaceport, Mining Frigate, Terraformer and Asteroid Mine. The Bandit has the unique logic of actively checking the lootables through the raid. So if he runs away, you might be able to find him in these locations! The Bandit also benefits from having a wide range of items in his backpack that can be different every time you loot it. If you can catch him…
SVU Special
This patch's installment into the dart ammo library is the SVU Special. It’s a heavily modified “Dragunov” style semi automatic that deals some of the highest damage in Marauders, alongside a very healthy amount of bleed damage. Just like the APS Rifle you can find this in the vault or supply drops.
Navy Outpost Shooting Range & Kill House
Our “Unique Actors” continue to grow the overall experience of the game. Within the Navy Outpost you can now find a playable “Killhouse” where you can time your runs and try to beat the house record (using more than a single M712 magazine is cheating!). Or you can loosen those wrists at a fully working shooting range. All times and scores are displayed on nearby monitors so keep a lookout!
Polish & Turkish Localisation
We have been continuing to expand the languages the game is available in. With this update we have added Polish and Turkish to the list!
And now for the endless list of changes that everyone loves...
- Raider Mode (solos only, no crews)
- New Bandit NPC (Loot Goblin)
- New bag item, Freebooter Backpack (Largest in the game)
- New SVU Special rifle (Dart ammo type)
- Useable Shooting Range in Navy Outpost
- Usable Kill House in Navy Outpost
- New Security Prisoner appearance unlock, requiring 75 prisoner kills
- 2 New Zero to Hero missions, to destroy space mines and Guard Medical Rooms
- Marauder Kill Tournament/leaderboard (resets twice a month)
- Heavy Breacher and Attack Pods now have unique escape hatch door textures
- New icons for the: Hard Hat, PPSH, Light Stahlhelm, Welders and Security Helmet
- Room next to the canteen entrance in the Penal Colony is now a medic office
- Security room at the bottom of the Mining Frigate is now a foreman/medic room
- Frigate crosshair is now more visible
- Kills leaderboard has been moved into the tournament system (to keep it fresh and be able to give out rewards)
- Transmitters can now be acquired through a market trade.
- Transmitters can now be crafted
- Merchant armoury token (the door is now locked and requires this item which can be found on dead security within the Merchant Ship)
- NPCs (not bosses) have a higher chance of missing (25%)
- Bren ADS speed has increased by 25% (slower animation)
- Attack pods now fire 14 rounds that do 12 damage each (up from 10 rounds and 10 damage each)
- Damage on breaching reduced by 10%
- Heavy breacher pods now mitigate 80% damage down from 90%
- All ships (except rustbucket) now have 2 special pod bays (instead of 4) that should be labeled above the door. The other 2 are default escape pods.
- All special pod bays (attack and heavy breacher) now have a 120 second cooldown after being used.
- Bandage cost has been reduced by around 50%
- Welder mask is now a 2x2 slot size (smaller)
- All recipe crafting times have been reduced and standardized, they are either 5 seconds (basic), 15 seconds (advanced) or 30 seconds (complex)
- Starting gear (new account/after wipe) now has 8 additional bandages and 2 additional sack bags.
- Increased rare loot pool for Merchant Ship and Mining Frigate map
- The Mac10 heavy barrel no longer increases damage (this was unintentional) and now reduces 0.75 recoil instead of 1.
- PPSH has had it's vertical and horizontal recoil increased.
- The Sten and it's attachments are now around 20 to 30% cheaper.
- The Terminator has had its spread reduced by over 30% giving it the tightest spread for a shotgun.
- Players will now earn 3 skills points at every level
- Early crafting recipes no longer cost credits
- Skill point cost for recipe unlocks have been redistributed requiring less overall (however you earn less points per level to balance it out)
- Early Zero to Hero mission "Head Protection" now requires hard hats instead of M1 Helmets to collect.
- Max stack for dart ammo is now 40, with initial stacks being 20. (up from 32 and 16)
- Dart ammo can now spawn in ammo box unlockables
- M712 and 10mm ammo has been reverted back to the P08 and 9mm ammo as the free ship loot.
- Navy Outpost infirmary now has additional medical loot
- The APS rifle and the SVU rifle can now spawn in large and normal supply drops
- The Sten has around 5% less recoil and and now deals 21 damage (up from 20) with a 20 RPM increase to fire rate (480 > 500)
- Uncommon green containers now can spawn MK3 flak vest, M1 helmets, Brodie helmet, Klobb, Trench Shotgun, Medic bag, M712 special and the B.A. helmet.
- The Spaceport vault intel raid mission has been replaced with a Spaceport weapon shop raid mission, to prevent overlaps and errors with the Spaceport vault zero to hero mission
- You can now do the ‘holding depot’ Zero to Hero mission in the Merchant Ship and Mining Frigate raid locations.
- Removed logic that would make A.I. fire instantly at any range when first seeing an enemy (before warning the player or using a warmup time). This is particularly noticeable with the shotgun prisoner NPCs. This logic also resulted in them ignoring the need to reload.
- Updated UI for the Launch button in the main menu
- When not in a crew, the matchmaking settings (next to the launch button) now has the option to switch between: Raider Mode & Normal Mode
- In frigates, the screen above a Podbay hatch now says what type they are (Attack, Breacher, Normal etc)
- Removed Leaderboard button from the main screen (now done in the tournament)
- Pod shooting keybind added to the settings keybinding menu
- Polish and Turkish language options added to the gameplay options language setting
- Added Raider Boss and Bandit A.I types to the stats menu
- HUD changes to remove certain non relevant UI elements when playing Raider Mode
- New Security Guard Body variation added to the appearance section of the main menu
- Tweaks to HUD spaceship crosshair to make it easier to see in bright light sources
- New healing mesh and animation for using a bandage
- Improved ambient sounds in Penal Colony raid area
- Improved sound occlusion in Penal Colony raid area
- Optimised the asterioids that spawn around your ship
- Optimised the space turrets
- Optimised explodable actors
- Networking optimisations
- Optimisation to space mines so they should no longer render at extremely long distances
- Optimised some textures
- Optimised ship insides
- Polish translations added to the game
- Turkish translations added to the game
- New boot video
- New login screen video
- 5 new tutorial videos in the guide for an introduction on how to play: Gearing Up, Ready To Launch, First Flight, Docking, Escaping
- Fixes for crashes
- Fixes for inventory bugs
- Fixes for exploits
- Fix for character mesh location network disparity on proxy characters
- Protective layer fix added to prevent NPC hitting players when they are safely inside the Escape Pod
- Increase collision of silver coins and lockpicks to help prevent them falling through the floor.
- APS stock now displays the recoil reduction correctly (Rather than damage) in the weapon workbench stats
- SAS Captain should no longer attack other SAS NPCs
- Fixed a few bugs with video settings, that caused them to sometimes not set correctly
- Fixed a bug where killing a Raider Boss would give you the incorrect XP
- Viper suppressor now updates the weapon workbench menu damage correctly
- Spelling mistake fixes in item descriptions
- Fixed a bug where your view of other people wouldn't show them sprinting
- Changed the blend in time for the get off pilot seat to help stop weapon showing for a split second from first person view
- Fix for Russian translations not working on the screens above pods in ships
- Fixed a bug where you could hit confirm on the discard popup multiple times before the window closed
And that's it for today’s Patch Notes. See you soon for the next Dev Blog!
Dash or Die, Marauder!
- The SIG Team
