Archive:Alpha II

File:Archive:Alpha II.png

**Released** - September 18th, 2018

**Update Size** - N/A

* The new game mode is about completing as many contracts as possible before escaping the planet.
* Added Personal Quests to the game; quests that can be found during a match for bonus points.
	+ Data Retrieval; find and recover valuable research data from human settlements.
	+ Item Delivery; find a mysterious green artifact and deliver it to a drop off location.
	+ Creature Tracking; find and follow tracks of creature and find its nest.
* Central Station quest; when 5 Power-Up stations are active at the same time, the Central Station quest gets activated.
* Warden Alpha quest; at some point in the match the Warden Alpha is spawned and an extra quest is activated. Does not appear in every match.

**Emergency Triage / Down But Not Out (DBNO)**

* Players who are at 0 health are in Emergency Triage.
* Players who are in Emergency Triage can be revived by pact mates.
* Players in Emergency Triage have a shield that can lose health.
* Upon losing all health on the shield, Players in Emergency Triage are stranded (a.k.a. out of a game).
* Players who strand a player in Emergency Triage have a bounty placed on them (200 credits) and are visible on the map for the duration of the bounty (60 seconds).

**Game tips**

* Added game tips to the matchmaking screen in the menu and to the lobby screen before a match.

**Server Status Screen**

* This screen will be shown if The Cycle servers are unavailable (e.g. outside testing times, technical issues) to convey relevant information.

**Enabled randomized character customization**

* Players character is randomized on Match Start.

### General improvements

**Settings menu – we added**

* proper settings tabs
* key rebinding
* support for resolutions up to 4k
* resolution quality scaling setting
* motion blur setting
* FPS-capping setting
* FOV setting
* separate audio settings for: Master, Music, Sound effects and Dialogue
* mouse invert settings; separate for x- and y-axis

**Quest System iterations**

* Adjusted waves for Epic Minerals, so they stop once the mineral is done.
* Three new Power Up stations; Landing pad, swamp camp & crashed ship.
* Added more possible terminals locations to all Power Ups. Now every Power Up has 12 different possible locations for the terminals (was 6).
* Increased possible locations from 3 to 7 for the Zeal Crystal to be spawned on the map.
* Updated logic for finding a good drop location for the Zeal Crystal to prevent it being stuck inside of geometry
* Added UI elements with quest information to Mineral and Power Up objects

**Evacuation iteration**

* Changed the evacuation location to a single point in the center of the map.
* Added authentication mechanic: Prospectors now have to be scanned before being authorized to enter the ship.
* Prospectors located directly below the landing ship will be pushed aside or, if that fails, crushed (killed) by it.
* Deployables (e.g. Turrets, Mines) are destroyed when ship lands on them, to avoid exploits.
* Added notification for 3 minutes until ship arrives.

**Loot**

* Major money loot pass all over the level. Created a few smaller human structures for new loot locations.

**Gear Store**

* Improved logic to find a landing location for Gear Store purchases. Fixed issue with purchases ending up inside meshes.

**Tutorial**

* Adjusted tutorial evacuation to use latest evacuation mechanics.
* Disabled quest difficulty levels in the tutorial.

**Other improvements**

* Reduced volume of the landing sequence.
* Smoothed out landscapes.
* Adjusted the help overlay to include Melee and the comm-wheel. Removed redundant entries.
* Added the UI-top bar and the match timer to the spectator HUD.
* Fixed floating cover objects all over the map.
* Added blocking volumes to the center structure mountains to avoid player somehow getting up there, dominating the area.
* Adjusted level cover based on BI Data from Alpha Test 1.
* Fixed major collisions issues with the map.
* Monster Nest interaction time increased from 2 to 5 to prevent exploitation.
* Interaction set-back from taking damage while interacting increased.
* Sprinting noise markers on the map are now only visible to players who don’t sprint themselves.
* Uplink marker shows owner’s name in the map.
* Weapon selection in HUD plays animation when equipped or upgraded.
* Fixed several issues in Sandbox mode.
* Removed Mid-Air Crouching.
* Reloading does not interrupt Boxer Warsuit High Jump animation.
* Holding the Aim button will resume aiming after interruption.
* Strafing/backwards movement is slower than forward movement.
* Weapon Damage towards Creatures and Players is tuned separately.
* Reduced size of sights on the Hammer pistol, the Scarab pistol & on the K-28 Autopistol.
* Fixed skinning issue on the K-28 Autopistol.
* Fixed flickering on Advocate assault rifle.

### Tuning / Balance Improvements

**Weapons balancing**

* Reduced damage of starting pistols against other players – damage against AI stays the same.
* Minor changes have been made to almost all weapons. Lower tier weapons are now slightly less powerful and mid-tier weapons are slightly more powerful.
* Most Gear Store upgrades have been retuned.

**Quest system tuning**

* Balanced monsters for Epic Minerals, reduced the amount of monsters per monster squad
* Tuned down money drops for Mineral monsters and Super Power Up Monsters for both game modes. For minerals and super power up, list monsters now give 1/2 of the normal monster money drops and loop monsters 1/4 of it.
* The first Uplink station is activated 30s after match start instead of immediately.

**Kits**

* Archive:Boxer Warsuit
	+ Added two levels that scale the damage of the Charge Attack.

* Dragonfly
	+ Added two levels that scale the damage of the Dive Attack.
	+ Reduced Jetpack recharge rate.

* Aani Quicksuit
	+ Added two levels, one that increases weapon range and one that increases headshot damage.
	+ Tuned Dodge and Slide to have slightly higher cooldowns.
	+ Decreased speed of both, increased velocity at which Slide is stopped.
	+ Decreased jump height.

* Archive:Basic Prospector Kit
	+ Added two levels, one that increases weapon damage and one that decreases ability cooldown times.

**AI**

* Rebalance of Squatter AI into Feeble, Normal, and Warrior and Hunt Squatter AI into Aberrant, Mutated, and Evolved.
* Global health reduction.
* Increased movement speed of Drone type AIs and projectile speed of Spitter type AIs.
* Removed health regeneration on Warden Alpha.

**Abilities**

* Archive:Snare Trap DPS reduced, range increased, HP drastically reduced, now affects heavy jump and jetpack.
* Archive:Kheper Revitalizer better handles activation and sprinting.
* Reduced range of Archive:Directional Warp.

### Bug Fixes

**Multiple issues**

* with game stability.
* with the collision in the game – none & invisible.
* with in game audio and audio settings.
* with becoming stuck after interactions.
* where your shipments would be placed inside geo.
* where auto-collected money meshes remain on the ground so you couldn’t pick the collect money.
* where German text was not translated.
* where the shard was dropping when a deployable takes damage.
* with UI/Game focus.
* related to foliage being too high.
* Fixed an issue …
* where sprint stops working after an interaction.
* where The Gear Store doesn’t open in the Sandbox mode.
* where running while using self heal plays the animation but the healing action doesn’t occur.
* where the chat cursor moves to end of line after every input.
* where chat focus is lost after every message you send.
* where the last player to escape is stuck in reward screen and does not get into end of match screen.

**Fixes**

* where creatures would disappear from spectator mode.
* with distorted images for dropped gear.
* regarding the VFX & radius/triggerability with the Jetpack.
* with auto fire weapons not stopping sfx and vfx on empty clip.
* with overlapping Voice Overs.
* with Water looking glitchy.
* relating to mouse sensitivity options being reset.
* where icons in the scoreboard would get cutoff relating to the player name length.
* related to various hunt locations not having monsters.
* relating to interaction with Farmon.
* relating to dying while in the shop and the game appears non-responsive.
* where items has descriptions twice in the item select screen.
* where players does not gain faction progression points.
* where Cyrillic fonts not displaying correctly.
* where there were grammar issues.
* with the minimap in spectator mode.
* where roads at several locations did not touch the ground.

**Tutorial**

* where the evac ship bar is still displayed.
* where cancelling the pact didn’t work.
* where two evac markers are shown.
* where the reward screen was not shown.
* that the monsters would spawn to late and would be irrelevant.
* where the player started without a weapon.
* where your gear set is shown.

**Misc**

* where the player can jump during the intro sequence, breaking the pod exit animation.
* where if you escape first, but finish objectives second, the checkbox for escaping first is not checked.
* where chat cannot be opened with the Enter key in winners screen.
* with the readability of when the Dive attack is available or not from the Jetpack.
* where pickups don’t disappear once you have picked them up.
* where the starter battle rifle has the wrong upgrade.
* with audio cues – you heard “Your ally has been killed” when you die.
* where lobby music is not played from the second match on.
* where the ‘crafted’ message always shows up when opening the factions screen.
* where there is no escape ship marker.
* where players can activate sprint while standing still.
* where when your kinetic shield takes damage it interrupts your interaction bar.
* where ‘complete all contracts’ was not checked even though there were all completed.
* where there was no icon for active power up.
* where it is not possible to change languages on the second attempt.
* where the head hitbox can be completely separate from head on looking up/down.
* where targets can walk away from the snare trap
* where weapons would stop firing after a few shots.
* where the weapon would be stuck in a shooting animation.
* where the UI does not show the next facility.
* which showed experience for progression above the limit.
* where the map is visible for a brief moment before the lobby is displayed.
* where your shadow is still visible when you are cloaked.
* where there was a low-pass audio filter on for 3d sounds for the match duration.
* where there was no Gear Icon for ‘Esc Menu’.
* where the ‘Esc Menu’ missing from the Gear Store.
* where opening the Esc menu while in the shop menu blocks the use of Esc.
* where a pact was broken but the refiner still says owned by pactmate.
* where the zeal crystal is blocking the view during the ninja slide.
* where all map markers disappear when Evac shows up.
* where cloaking doesn’t drop monster aggro.
* with the nest icon remaining on the Minimap after nest has been taken.
* where monsters at Evac spawn under the landing platform.
* where icons on map don’t disappear after the player collects the related item
* where the game would crash 100% when attempting to purchase above the ability or weapon upgrade threshold.
* where the Mineral Marker on Minimap does not disappear after completion.
* where the Power up console is placed inside a rock.
* where the map was blurry until settings
* where switched to High settings.
* where market prices are always red even if players have enough money.
* where the player could interact with power up station before activating all terminals (with no functionality).
* where your pact mate is not shown on Minimap.
* where crafting would not work.
* where changing graphics settings and double-clicking the Apply button results in the UI going missing with inability to access ESC key menu or queue.
* where refiners where not showing up on the map.
* where minerals that were already mined
* where showing up on the Minimap.
* where all map icons where showing.
* where the Evac ship gets stuck in midair.
* where the Uplink was not able to be captured.
* where weapon icons still show on drop pods after the item has been picked up.
* where Farmon sound effects are too loud.
* where Zeal crystal could not be picked up.
* where a delivery was ordered, but didn’t show up.
* where after a match the player is stuck in the server status screen.
* where text on a non-interactable power up consoles reads “item already owned”.
* where prices in the station
* where not displayed.
* where opening chat and clicking the world blocks all input.
* where you could not shoot in the sandbox mode.
* where you could not open the shop in sandbox mode.
* where the Evac ship didn’t arrive in sandbox mode.
* with VO’s not giving correct feedback in the tutorial.
* where you could become blocked while looting at the same time as another player.
* with the snare mine, that it could be used to prevent other players escaping.
* when using the bug reporter that you can’t backspace more than a few times.
* where the game believes a player has the Zeal crystal if the crystal was collected by another player at the same time.
* where you can cancel matchmaking by accident when wanting to chat.
* with white clouds during the storm.
* where the options menu can’t be closed.
* where when pressing both aim and shoot during reload caused aiming not to function.
* where quests
* where not active when they were.
* where evacuation was not active but it was.
* where end of match results got added every time you open the screen.
* where a player was shown as alive but was dead.
* where it was not possible to add the snare mine and the heavy turret to the gear set.
* where the player was stuck moving in a given direction.
* where the player got stuck when waiting on the evac landing pad and the evac ship landed.
* where settings are not restored after a restart or a new match.
* where the lock icon was missing if you cannot unlock an item.
* where a player was able to slide while he was jumping (Ninja kit).
* where the player position/ranking on the quest list is duplicated (German only).
* where the master audio option doesn’t mute all sounds effects.
* where you can’t shoot through friendly Kinectic Shields.