Summer Squash - Part II

Another update, another batch of bugs being squashed! The second part of our Summer Squash season also includes key balance tweaks to even the score a little more.

We've got one more Summer Squash update to come, which will be heavily focused on optimization. Keep your eyes out for it in the coming weeks!

## **Balance**

### **Mercs**

#### **Aimee**

While Aimee is useful, she hasn't quite been keeping up with the other snipers. We believe part of this is due to the long cooldown of her SNITCH Device once it's destroyed.

We've reduced this cooldown so Aimee can deploy SNITCH's more regularly. In doing so we've also reduced the maximum life-span of the SNITCH to match, effectively making it 'one per spawnwave' when it comes to Stopwatch play.

* Reduced the SNITCH cooldown to 25s (from 30s)
* Reduced the SNITCH lifespan to 25s (from 30s)

#### **Redeye**

In the right hands, Redeye has proven to be overly effective, especially when firing through Smoke, leaving his targets with little chance to fight back.

While this behavior is intended, we felt that Redeye could spend too much time in this state, so we've increased the cooldown cost of enabling IR Goggles. This not only reduces the total amount of time the IR Goggles can spend enabled, but also increases the cooldown penalty of constantly switching IR Goggles on and off.

To also provide a better counter to Redeye, we've also reduced the amount of explosive damage it takes to remove Smoke from an area, so now a single Frag Grenade will do the trick.

* Reduced explosive damage required to dissipate Smoke to 170 (from 225)
* Increased the initial Cooldown cost of enabled IR Goggles to 3s (from 1.2s)

#### **Sawbonez**

As the current top-dog Medic, Sawbonez needs marginally toning down. Since his healing is heavily based on quick-regeneration, we've reduced the instant 'Direct Hit' healing he provides with his Med Packs. This brings it in-line with the 'Direct Hit' bonus that Sparks' Med Packs provide.

* Reduced Sawbonez Med Pack 'Direct Hit' instant heal to 10hp (from 20hp)

#### **Sparks**

The REVIVR Rifle makes Sparks a formidable reviver and the longest range Medic, however her reduced healing capacity means she's often not as effective as the others.

With that in mind, we've increased the amount of healing her Med Packs provide to others, while keeping the self-healing the same.

* Increased health provided by Sparks Med Pack to teammates to 40hp (from 30hp)
* Increased collision box on Sparks Med Packs to make them a little easier to pick up

### **Assault Rifles**

#### **Dreiss AR**

The Dreiss has been seen to be the least effective Assault Rifle when it's available. Since the main issue seems to be bullet spread when fired from the hip, we've significantly reduced initial bullet spread and toned down the maximum bullet spread after sustained fire.

* Reduced starting bullet spread by ~20%
* Reduced maximum spread by ~4%

#### **Timik-47**

The Timik-47 has been lagging slightly behind the M4. While it is intended to be harder to control, it should be initially more accurate. We've reduced the starting bullet spread a little more to emphasise this, while also toning down the vertical kick after each shot, to make it a little more viable when ironsighting.

* Reduced starting bullet spread by ~6%
* Reduced vertical recoil by ~4%

#### **PDP-70**

While The PDP-70 has been seen to be very effective on Redeye due to his ability to hunker down and fire through smoke, it's not seeing nearly the same performance when in the hands of Aimee or Vassili.

With that in mind, alongside the changes to Redeye, we've opted to increase its potential burst damage with higher damage per shot, but lowering it's damage output over time.

This should reduce the effectiveness of spamming through Smoke, while leaving the weapon itself potent.

* Increased damage to 50 (from 45)
* Reduced rate-of-fire to 138RPM (from 180RPM)
* Reduced magazine capacity to 8 (from 9)

#### **Grandeur SR**

While it has good killing potential, the Grandeur SR requires a lot of control, often leaving the shooter as a stationary target. We decided to speed up the reload speed and make it more accurate when hip-fired to allow for a bit more mobility.

* Reduced initial bullet spread by ~10%
* Reduced reload time to 2.2s (from 2.6s)

### **SMGs**

#### **Hochfir SMG**

While being the most accurate SMG, the Hochfir has been struggling in the damage department. To counter this we've marginally increased the rate of fire to bring its time-to-kill closer to the other SMG's.

* Increased rate of fire to 833RPM (from 811RPM)

#### **Machine Pistols**

Compared to the semi-automatic Pistol secondaries, the MP 400 and especially the Empire-9 are both significantly over-performing.

#### **MP 400**

The MP 400 is the slowest-firing, hardest-hitting of the Machine Pistols, so we've lowered the rate of fire a little more here to tone it down while further differentiating it from the others.

* Reduced rate of fire to 619RPM (from 632RPM)

#### **Empire-9**

The Empire-9 is the fastest-firing Machine Pistol and intended to fill the air with low-damaging bullets. Currently it's vastly out performing all other secondaries so we've increased the maximum bullet spread and recoil, making it harder to control over time.

* Increased maximum bullet spread by ~7%
* Increased recoil by ~10%

#### **Pistols**

Both the Caulden and the Simeon .357 are under-performing when compared to other secondaries.

#### **Caulden**

We've increased the number of rounds in the Caulden magazine, so it's closer to the other pistols in terms of damage-per-magazine and players will have to reload less often.

* Increased rounds per magazine to 9 (from 8)

#### **Simeon .357**

The Simeon is the weaker, and thus easier-to-handle of the two revolvers. We've reduced the kick to make it easier to for players to land those devastating head-shots.

* Reduced maximum bullet spread by ~7%
* Reduced vertical recoil by ~6%

## **General**

* Added an audible 3-second countdown when a match is about to restart due to a Restart Map Vote
* Added Team Chat to Ranked Lobbies
* Added the 'Favorite star' to the Loadout Card prompt when attempting to Recycle a Favorite Loadout Card
* AFK-Kicks no longer temporarily ban players from Server Browser games, they can rejoin when they are active again (if there is still space on the server)
* Automatically triggered AFK-Kick Votes no longer prevent the AFK player from calling other votes
* Estimated queue time is now only shown when there is enough data to predict the waiting time
	+ Previously, displayed queue times where incorrect when coming out of downtime
* Optimized Merc models by reducing the number of skeletal bones for Sawbonez, Rhino, Fragger, Thunder & Phoenix when viewed at a distance
* Loadout Cards on Death Ghosts are now introduced to players who reach Level 3, when the game has had a chance to explain how Loadout Card rarities work

## **Bug Fixes**

* Fixed bug where a dropped Carryable objective was still visibly held in-hand by the incapped player
* Fixed bug where C4 couldn't be planted on a Generator if it had previously been destroyed by gunfire
* Fixed bug where completing C4 Objectives was not correctly granting XP
* Fixed bug where completing C4 Objectives were not counting towards Objective Badges
* Fixed bug where the 'One enemy remaining' voice line in Execution was counting incapacitated players as alive
* Fixed bug where Loadout Cards could sometimes appear much darker that they should do in-game
* Fixed bug where the primary weapon could sometimes be equipped twice on a Revive
* Fixed bug where Thunder's Concussion Grenade wasn't fully blinding players
* The blinding effect is no longer full-white - it has been toned down slightly to help prevent eye strain
* Fixed bug where debug text could appear when players stopped Matchmaking
* Fixed bug where dying during the end of round outro would cause the player to have broken hand animations
* Fixed bug on Chapel where walking on the Secondary Objective ramps could cause the client to de-sync from the server
* Fixed bug where attempting to fire would not cancel a C4 plant
* Fixed bug where Clan Tags would not appear in the post-game lobby of matchmade games
* Fixed bug where Crafting Kits and Weapon Kits would be hidden by default in the Inventory screen
* Fixed bug where the wrong weapon model could be visible when a player was Revived
* Fixed bug where IR Goggles could not be deactivated when running low on energy
* Fixed bug where Martyrdom was reporting as a Melee kill in player stats
* Fixed bug where Molotov icons did not appear in death ghost info
* Fixed bug where Molotov flames could sometimes not be extinguished by explosives
* Fixed bug where player chat was not colored by team in the post-game Lobby of Ranked games
* Fixed bug where players could join another game but remain in a Ranked Party
* Fixed bug where players could not accept Party Invites from a Party that another player had already left
* Fixed bug where players would be prompted to rejoin a Ranked Match they had been kicked & banned from
* Fixed bug where sorting Loadout Cards by Date would not have any effect
* Fixed bug where the background images in the main menu could start cycling quickly at random intervals
* Fixed bug where the incorrect audio would play when attempting to re-activate Phantom's Refractive Armor
* Fixed bug where the 'Moving on Up' Steam Achievement would not unlock when Crafting a Loadout Card
* Fixed bug where the Options menu would move off-screen when changing between 21:9 and 4:3 aspect ratios
* Fixed bug where the screen would flash white when switching between tabs in the Profile screen
* Fixed bug where the weapon stats would overlap with the page numbers in the Profile page
* Fixed bug where the wrong color could appear for player chat in lobbies
* Fixed bug where thrown items would sometimes not spawn when network conditions were extremely poor
* Fixed bug where weapons could constantly keep switching after planting C4
* Fixed potential crash when the game is left on the front end for extended periods of time
* Fixed bug where gaps were visible in the underarms of some Mercs' character models
* Fixed bug where Fragger's trigger finger appeared broken when viewed in third-person
* Fixed bug where the 'Ranked Mode Unlocked' post-match award had missing text