Archive:Release 12

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## NEW RECOIL SYSTEM

DEV COMMENT: *We’ve finally revisited the recoil system. This was a bigger task to tackle and you might be able to notice some camera animations when shooting and reloading for example and that some of the weapon animations when firing also behave slightly different.*

*With this we hope to improve the feel of the different weapons and create different characteristics.*

*But the main change is that we detached the cross hair and are now able to move this separately from the player camera. And that we now have the possibility to draw recoil by using curves.*

*The detachment of the cross hair means the weapons impact does not have to directly impact the player camera which would result in a lot of movement jumps and can be perceived sickening. Instead, in combination with the recoil curves we hope to portrait unwieldy weapons without having to rotate your camera 45 degrees to the sky. Thank you for the intensive feedback that we received in the last PTS session, we used this to iterate on the things that you have seen and “experienced” there. We are still working on improving it further and would value your feedback.*

* We downsized crosshair sizes amongst the weapons
* We added recoil curves for Assault rifles, SMGs, Zeus beam, Phasic Lancer, ICA Guarantee.
* Crosshairs are not always stuck to the center of the screen. This is on a per weapon basis and not always as noticeable.
* Changed the behavior of recoil compensation after you stop firing.
	+ This mechanic would normally always go back to your initial first shot starting position unless you override this by looking around. Now this compensation is limited by the recoil distance. And won’t compensate if you have fought the recoil while firing.

## DBNO INVULNERABILITY

When a player leaves DBNO (Down but not Out) there is a small time frame on which they do not take any damage. We have small reason to believe this can cause a full invulnerability state where some players do not take damage at all for the duration of the match, a bug that appeared in the last weeks.. Therefore some changes have been done around this alongside a change which means the invulnerability has been replaced to only take 20% damage.

What we hope to achieve is that the invulnerability bug does not occur anymore. This is an issue we have and still try to monitor and any reports are very valuable to us on this.

## IN ENEMY SIGHTS – PROTOTYPE

We added in a feature which lets you know when you’ve been sighted by another player.  Our intention here is to add more UI feedback to give you a sixth sense and avoid getting jumped on by other players.

* A faint orange glow around your reticle and ominous sound plays when an enemy has you in their sights
* The AI suit will also tell you a bit about what’s happening

## MONSTER IMPROVEMENTS

We are constantly pushing the topic of AI internally. This time we focused mainly around animations and the tuning which expands their readability.  Stumbles, staggers, flinches, and how your attacks affect them.Our goal and intention is to expand your options when engaging with enemies by building a language around fighting AI.

For example: We increased stability DMG across pistols which really needed it and expanded on the the AI telegraphing their attacks. This means we are giving you more warnings when an enemy attacks and a better way to stagger them. So if you see a Spitter winding up for a barrage: Shoot or melee it to stop it from firing. This will give you a window of opportunity to switch targets while the spitter is disoriented.

## GEAR STORE – QUICKBUY

DEV COMMENT: *This was a community request. We added a “1337” way life-hack to your gear store.  G00d j0b, c0mmunity!!*

* + - Numerical keys (1-3) appear in the row for Weapon, Ability, and Vehicle
		- Pressing the numerical keys (1-4) corresponding to a gun or ability, in the gear store, buys the item
		- Toggle-able from the Settings menu
			* …but we turned it on because it’s awesome!

## MISCELLANEOUS

Story Missions:

* Story Mission Selection: Selectable from the little tablet icon in the top left, next to inbox. Check your progress on all story missions and easily start or pause your missions from one handy location!
* Independent Story Missions: ICA have some special missions for you, check them out in the story mission selection menu.

Ranked Mode:

* Players can not go below C in ranked mode.
* Ranked Hall of Fame: Check the top players from the previous Ranked season, and your best rank from the previous season.

Challenges:

* For the sake of a bug fix in our quest service, all players will see their daily challenges re-rolled when release 12 goes live

Spring Event:

* Keep an eye out for our Spring event mode soon! Collect the most eggs to win a special banner.

Re-queue is back:

* You can cancel matchmaking during pre-matchmake countdown
* You can deactivate auto-requeue in settings
	+ No more pulling you into games you didn’t want to queue for!

Report Player Button:

* If you see other players’ toxic behavior, hackers, griefing or AFK you can now report them either during match or in the station.
	+ To do so just click the red symbol next to their name.

Power-Up landmark:

* The Power-Up landmark received an art pass and some level design love to make it stand-out more.

Sound Changes:

* All starter weapons in the Co-Tec line have new SFX
	+ Attenuation has been adjusted on these guns
* New SFX for Orbital bombardment
* Geysers attenuation and volume adjusted for Map 2
* Audio optimization on the storm
* DSP optimization
* Movement related sounds
	+ Cloth foley for running, jumping, hard and soft landings

## WEAPONS, ABILITY & KIT CHANGES

### ABILITIES

Triage Sphere

* The triage and skirmish sphere will be spawned from a device (still a Prototype) which other players are able to destroy like a ward.

Barriers

* The kinetic barrier, shell and dome abilities will now also block piercing rounds.

### PLAYER

Health Recharge

* There is now a hard cap on the damage you need to take before your health recharge delay is reset.
	+ Any incoming damage that is below this threshold of 10 damage will still deal damage and stop active regeneration but does not reset your health delay if it’s still in progress. The threshold right now is set at 10.

Hitbox Update

* In 10.1 we introduced a new hitbox. After gathering a lot of feedback we iterated on this hitbox. Please let us know if you experience any issues with this one.

### KITS

The buff on kill attribute was said to reduce the recharge time of abilities. There was indeed such an attribute on this mod that had no Impact and therefore was removed. The description will be changed for Release 13.

Dragonfly

We noticed a very big increased popularity on the Dragonfly kit and received feedback that due to the overuse of the jetpack, gameplay isn’t as fun as it should be. Therefore we increased the delay before fuel starts regeneration. And we lowered the increase rate. By doing so players will have to be a bit more thoughtful on their fuel they use.

* Decreased Jetpack Energy regeneration rate from 25 to 10
* Increased the cooldown on Energy regeneration from 0.75 to 1.5

### WEAPONS

DEV COMMENT: *With the new recoil and hitboxes we also have sailed back into the territory of balance changes. One of the big topics is time to kill; We are looking into lowering the time to kill from the base of the weapon. Alongside these damage changes some mods have been touched upon as well. Besides changing or removing recoil attributes due to the new system we will also look more into the mods overtime to make them less impactful. This allows us to add more mods across the different slots which then could stack certain recoil or damage attributes together.*

* Scrapper The Recoil is hard and unwieldy, fall off range therefore is now mimicking the ASP Flechette
	+ Changed the fall off range from 7.5 – 20 meters to 10 – 40 meters
* Hammer
	+ Changed the fall off range from 30-80 meters to 20-70 meters
	+ Reduced the fall off damage from 75% to 40% damage at max range
	+ Mods
		- Double Action
			* Changed the Burst interval from 0.09 to 0.15 seconds
			* Increases the hip-fire spread from 20% to 30%
			* The recoil reduction of 50% has been removed from this mod
		- Internal Damper
			* Changed weapon recoil reduction from 20% to 10%
			* Changed weapon targeting reduction from 25% to 10%
* Karma-1
	+ Increased the targeting time from 0.6 to 0.7 seconds
	+ Removed the radial damage (was 200)
	+ Increased direct damage from 400 to 500
	+ Mods
		- Splinter
			* Radial damage changed from 350 to 300
			* Can now damage the player if standing within explosion range
		- Low Caliber Slabs
			* Lowered the spinup reduction from 25% to 10%
			* Lowered direct weapon damage from adding 100 to removing 50 damage
			* Removed radial attribute because the base weapon does not have radial anymore
* Kor-47
	+ Increased direct damage from 31 to 38
	+ Increased the fall off damage from dealing 26% to 38% damage at max range
* Advocate
	+ Increased direct damage from 39 to 41
	+ Increased the fall off damage from dealing 24% to 45% damage at max range
	+ Mods
	+ Piercing rounds
		- The recoil increase of 75% has been removed from this mod
	+ Light Stock
		- Weapon recoil increase rate changed from 25% to 5%.
	+ Explosive rounds
		- The recoil increase of 50% has been removed from this mod.
* PDW-76
	+ Increased direct damage from 28 to 30
* ASP Flechette Gun
	+ Changed direct damage fall off from 0.17 to 0.3
* Gorgon
	+ Increased direct damage from 32 to 42
	+ Mods
		- Charged Capacitor
			* Weapon recoil increase changed from 25% to 10%
		- Crossed Resistor
			* Weapon recoil increase changed from 25% to 10%
* Maelstrom
	+ Increased ammo from 8 to 10
* Manticore
	+ Increased the fall off damage from dealing 23% to 43% damage at max range
	+ Decreased magazine size from 28 to 27
	+ Mods
		- Bundle ejector
			* Clip size reduction from 50% to 76%
		- Missile Flechettes
			* Radial damage size from 2.5 meters to 2 meters
			* Removed the magazine size reduction of 12
* Komrad
	+ Decreased magazine size from 18 to 12
	+ Mods
		- Big Bertha
			* Decreased magazine size from 6 to 4
* Scarab
	+ Mods
		- Phase Repeater
			* Weapon recoil increase rate removed
* Bulldog
	+ Mods
		- Shell Divider
			* Changed the rate of fire reduction from 100% to 20%
* Phasic Lancer
	+ Mods
		- Single Shot Chamber
			* Changed weapon recoil increase from 100% to 20%
		- Burst Increase
			* Changed weapon recoil from 25% to 10%

## CONTRACT ADJUSTMENTS

* Credits from completing contract tiers have been reduced from 3 credits per VP to 1 credit per VP
	+ The reason for this is that players currently have no reason to choose any contract but the highest scoring ones, since that will automatically also generate credits for them. By reducing the credits per VP, we hope to bring back the tactical decision of either going for VP or credits.
* Credit drops from Loot crates and some early and late game AIs have been upped to balance out the contract change, while still leading to a generally lower average credit income than in release 11, as it is currently too easy and fast to get to late game gear. Keep in mind that credit income will now depend even more on objective playstyle.
* The contracts have received a holistic tuning pass based on two primary things: PVP contracts have been upped in their scoring a bit to create more conflict around them (Uplink roughly +20%, Zeal roughly +10%, Gas roughly +15%) and vice versa (Minerals roughly -20%, partly due to the high credit gain), while some contracts have been adjusted to be more viable/balanced in their specific game mode (Central Power Up -20% in duo, Brightcaps + 15% in squad)

## BUG FIXES

* Fixed an issue where the Haze reload sound was missing.
* Fixed an issue with Season 2 – Mission 4 – you can now proceed with the missions.
* Fixed an issue with the shop in regards to the purchase of Starter Packs.
* Fixed an issue where players opened the Gear Store on their bike.
* Fixed an issue with the in-air damage of the Dragonfly Suit.
* Fixed several issues with the chat.

## KNOWN ISSUES

* Squad issues
	+ Squad up
	+ Player A Queue for duo match
	+ Player A dies and leaves to station
	+ Player B leaves to station
	+ Player A can not queue for a match, button status is stuck on waiting for squad match -> Player B can queue up for a new match
	+ If player B leaves the game, Player A has to restart his client.
	+ Same occurs with Player A, B, C, D
		- We are going to fix this as soon as possible.
* When you open the shop to fast after the game starts the currency values have not been properly loaded yet and will not show up.
* You might experience more crashes than usual, this will be fixed in the next release.
* Emotes don’t make sounds.
* Gorgon stops firing at random intervals when shoot button is held.
* MK2 weapons are still called MK2 and this will be fixed in a future release.
* Healing Aura first upgrade doesn’t work as intended.
* ZEUS and KARLA can have issues with visuals in 3rd person.
* K28 sound is ducked or not present.
* If your name contains special characters it is not shown properly.
* player can be facing one way, but shoot into another direction.
* Items still lose their upgrades when dropped, we’re working to remedy this in the future!
* When you die in a duo or squad match your team rank will not change until all of the players have either escaped or get foamed. We know that this can cause some confusion but the rank is shown at the end of the match will be the correct one.
* If you are using a controller, please note: There is no full controller support, yet.
* There are still some items that hover in the air while on a Laser Drill.
* Destroyed Rides might have collision issues and or weird texture behavior.
* If a lobby gets completely wiped the result screen might show wrong placements.
* Some Challenges might have a wrong language, that will be fixed with the next release.
* There are locations where Drop Pods might hover in the air.
* Some of the Paladin Icons and items have minor display issues when equipped in the station.
* Laser Drill still can have some texture issues.
* Sometimes the boxes of your Ride can hover in the air.

# APRIL FOOLS’

To be clear: Its April 1st and everybody expects now to read hilarious and stupid release notes but as we want to play it differently than other studios, we decided to not play this card. This patch is a bit overdue and will get some additional fixes when it is released. We couldn’t wait to give you a glimpse at the things that will be included. Note: This section was moved and was on top of the page on the 1st of April

## NEW RECOIL SYSTEM

DEV COMMENT: *After the last Public Test Server session with the community we had a nice overview in which ways we should tweak the new recoil system. It is intended to give you a better feedback of what kind of weapon you are handling and we want the gunfights to feel a bit more intense. If you foam someone now, you worked hard for it and if you don’t work hard with that new recoil you might just shoot the sky or drop your weapon cause sometimes it can be tough to control weapons as powerful as ours.*

* Crosshairs are now dynamic and per weapon
* Weapon recoil has been adjusted, if you shoot a Guarantee you need to show us your skill to stay on target.
* Be careful cause some weapons have a heavy kickback that could lead into dropping the weapon. Focus your shots and use intervals in your firing patterns.

## DBNO INVULNERABILITY

When a player leaves DBNO (Down but not Out) there is a small time frame on which they do not take any damage. We will increase this by 10 seconds as this can lead to some cool comeback mechanics. Get downed, survive with your wits and skill and then make your comeback!

## IN ENEMY SIGHTS – PROTOTYPE

Once deployed on Fortuna III you get the notification that 19 other players are on the same map.

We furthermore added in a feature which lets you know when you’ve been sighted by another player. Our intention here is to add more UI feedback to give you a sixth sense and avoid getting jumped on by other players.  If you have seen Alien for example you know what you get. Your map will pulse to scan for other Prospectors and if you have one in proximity, you see him on the mini-map. If you know someone is around be wary, cause they know you are there too.

* Cloaks will make you invisible and you will not get detected when you activate one.
* If you carry a ward, good for you, the signal of the ward automatically disables the proximity scan for your rival prospectors.

## MONSTER IMPROVEMENTS

Bigger, badder, better! The intention of this change is to prevent the focus on single contracts. If you are doing only minerals – tough luck buddy! After finishing the same contract three times the amount of beasts (or Co-Bots / Ticks) that spawn is doubled. If you continue gathering points with the same contract, you will face additional Brutes and if you still can’t get enough – you will get a mix of Wardens and Brutes. This change will help to keep the matches fresh and exciting and can also be used as a great escape mechanism. You already did a lot of minerals and get chased? Just start a new one and watch as your hunter becomes the hunted…. sweet, sweet mayhem!

## CHALLENGES

As we felt that it is too easy to achieve the daily challenges, we implemented a new system.

* After every match your daily challenges get re-rolled so you should focus them in one match or you will have to face new challenges the next time you drop down onto Fortuna III!
	+ You will learn about your new daily challenges after leaving the drop pod in a new match.

## WEAPONS, ABILITY & KIT CHANGES

### ABILITIES

Triage Sphere

* The triage and skirmish sphere will now be spawned directly on the Prospector, if you want to destroy that Sphere, take out that Prospector.

### KITS

Dragonfly

* Aim to hover is now implemented in the base version of the Kit.
* Removed the slam attack.

Boxer

* You can now chain 2 fast punches together for a nice combo.
* If you land your combo the rival Prospector gets knocked back.
* The Slam attack from the Dragonfly is added to the Boxer Kit and has a small stun on hit.

QuickSuit

We felt that the QS is in an odd state at the moment. Therefore we adjusted the mechanics a bit to make it more fun and hope that this will bring the QS back to its old glory.

* Triple Jump – If you time your jumps perfectly after a slide you can leap across massive gaps and long distances as each jump will make you go further. You can use this ability 3 times in a row.
	+ If we introduce player stats into the game we will surely record your longest jump at that point, make sure to train well.
* Slide – The Slide charges are removed to make you feel even more mobile with that suit. Slide in and out of sticky situations and be the master of escape!

### WEAPONS

* Karma-1
	+ Increased the targeting time from 0.6 to 0.7 seconds
	+ Splinter is now the standard shot for this weapon
	+ Increased damage from 400 to 500
	+ Radius of the explosion is increased by 50%
	+ Mods
		- Splinter
			* Removed due to this mod being the standard shot now
				+ Resource costs were refunded
* Gorgon
	+ If you hit all of the bursts a small explosion is triggered that deals 100 additional damage – We felt that the Gorgon was in a weak spot so we added some radial damage to the weapon.
* Scrapper
	+ After you emptied your magazine it will become a weak version of the grenade (50% of the damage of the grenade ability) that gets thrown on reload – We felt that the Scrapper was in a weak spot so we added some radial damage to the weapon.
* Bulldog
	+ Instead of lead you will fire small rockets now. Those rockets have a very limited area of effect, but can be used at longer range – We felt that the Bulldog was in a weak spot so we added some radial damage to the weapon.
* Scarab
	+ Mods
		- Chain Reaction
			* Added a small explosion to each jump, that deals 25 damage. If you hit more than one Prospector the additional damage of the explosions add up – We felt that the Scarab was in a weak spot so we added some radial damage to the weapon.
* Komrad
	+ Mods (As the Komrad is one of the most used guns in the game right now we decided to include a new mod for this weapon for testing purposes.)
		- The Spike
			* Instead of rockets you fire 3 lightning bolts out of the gun. These bolts can pierce through the environment and other Prospectors and if the hit the ground, they will create a Cycle Spike like Area of Effect damage spot.

### PLAYER

Health Recharge

* There is now a hard cap on the health regeneration of 10. Any incoming damage that is below this threshold will not affect your Prospector. You can still activate things without issues, your health recharges just fine etc. We think that this will make the effective weapon range feel better and also will bring the Prospectors closer to being super hero like protagonists in the untamed wilds of Fortuna III, just shake those bullets off!

Hitbox Update

* In 10.1 we introduced a new hitbox. After gathering a lot of feedback we iterated on this hitbox. So basically it now should feel like you are wearing a Stay Puft costume. This will help you to land shots in difficult situations and should make combat against others more fun again.

Please remember:

Even though we are now in Early Access and Season Two has started, the game is still in development. This means that bugs and crashes are to be expected.

If you find any issues during your session, please don’t hesitate to report it using the bug reporter tool in-game.

Please also keep in mind that queue times, especially late in the night might be longer than expected due to lower player count around these times.

We hope you have fun during your time on Fortuna III and look forward to reading your feedback!