Archive:Release 8

File:Archive:Release 8-crop.png
Related: Hotfix Jan 23rd Release 8.1

# RELEASE #8

Welcome to the Ranked Mode Prospectors!

Alongside this new feature, we introduce the 3D Lobby, a change to the Ruthless System and a whole lot of other things. Let’s dive into the changes right now!

## RANKED MODE IS HERE!

Show the others who’s the boss! Ranked Mode will pit you against other Prospectors who want to be the very best and gain fortune and fame!

Ranked Mode is a more deterministic, more competitive way of experiencing The Cycle, where goals/motivations outside of the match win condition (Story missions, etc.) are removed or at least kept to a minimum. In addition to this, any random gear or ability drops are disabled in Ranked Mode.

Follow the link to check the ranked mode in detail: https://thecycle.game/development-ranked-mode-preview/

IMPORTANT:

From the 22.01.2020 – 29.01.2020 Squad Ranked Mode will always be active

From the 30.01.2020 – 06.02.2020 Duo Ranked Mode will always be active.

Afterwards, we are going to switch the modes following our game mode schedule, that will be updated to include the Ranked Mode: https://thecycle.game/game-mode-schedule/

The 1st ranked mode season will most likely run until the 29th of February.

## RUTHLESS SYSTEM ADJUSTMENTS

***Dev Comment:** Giving players 1VP/Kill is meant as an experiment that would test several things. In our PvEvP experience, we’ve stayed away from giving players points for killing others. We have assumed that doing this would create more PVP, more people want to only kill others and more experiences of being killed and leaving the game. The goal is to see how this changes players’ perception of the game and other players in it – the hope is that it allows players who do engage in a lot of PVP to enjoy the game more, that it makes it feel a bit more OK to be killed (knowing that at least you were killed for a reason) and that at the end of the day it doesn’t detract from the importance of completing contracts to win the match. The hopes are that this makes the game better for many players, existing as well as new and that we find that we want to keep it. If this is what we find, we should then make sure to implement it properly and remove some of the issues that still exist with it. We think that the version that we currently have will give us enough information to tell whether or not we should keep it, iterate on it or go back to the way it previously was. We got some information from playing it internally and some information from the PTS and feel that we need to see the effects of it in the live game and that the best option is to see these early and that we have the time and opportunity to react accordingly.*

*Please let us know how it feels with this change.*

* Every Prospector now has a 1VP bounty from the start of the match. This includes teleporting away and foaming a prospector!

## KIT CHANGES

* Health for all Kits rebalanced
	+ For every kit, the standard amount between shield and health is now the same.
		- Adjusted Boxer shield from 300 to 600 & health from 900 to 600.
		- Adjusted Dragonfly shield from 300 to 500 & health from 600 to 500.
		- Adjusted Aani Quicksuit shield from 300 to 400 & health from 550 to 400.
		- Adjusted Basic + MK2 shield from 300 to 500 & health from 600 to 500.

* Slowdown on hit is be removed.
* Increased sprint speed from 1.7 to 1.9
* Basic Slide has been added to all kits
	+ Sprint +Crouch now activates a slide for all kits
		- The slide itself is quite short and does not cancel

## GAMEPLAY CHANGES

* 3D pre-match Lobby
	+ When you launch a match you will be in a pre-match lobby. You can walk around there and check the current contracts and players in the match.
* The NavMode is now the Scanner
	+ Opening what was originally NavMode now brings up the Scanner, while still having features from the NavMode
		- It works the same as the scanner where you can locate contract objectives, hostiles, credits, crafting materials, etc
		- Includes a proximity alarm for other players within a radius of 25m
		- We have removed the scanner as a craftable item
* Simple money pick-ups
	+ Found Credits in-match are now auto collected based on your proximity to them
* Physical Loot from killing monsters is removed
	+ Credits are now auto-assigned to the player on monster kills
		- Those who get the last hit will receive the credits
		- Great for those who are sniping monsters from afar
* The safety timer after breaking a pact has changed from 3s to 5s
* Contract balancing
	+ The drones take a bit longer to be fully destroyed
* Auto re-queue after foam
	+ If you’re foamed in a match, you will automatically re-enter the queue for the same game mode, with a button to opt-out of the queue
* Healing can now also be applied to shields
* Solo Mode Pact Change
	+ Increased score multiplier when in Pact from 0.5 to 1.0 for victory points
	+ You lose your shield and in addition your health is halved

## AI CHANGES

Our Senior Game Designer Marc has done some interesting changes to the creatures.

Here some bullet points for you:

* AI can now cope much better with multiple targets
* AI is now aware of potential damage spikes onto players and has rules to avoid them
* AI Combat roles (short, mid, long-range) and Silhouettes should be much easier to read now
* This is why the Bombardier is being removed…for now.
* Reworked the AI spawning system to be much more dynamic

But let’s just hear what he has to say about it in his own words:

*Before the holidays already the AI’s were gifted with some extended capacities; the ability to manage multiple targets is one, they switch when a better target is available. There’s also a token system that caps the number of AI’s that can damage a target at any given time to curb damage spikes, that’s one of the items that drive target switching. The token system already has seen a couple of refinements to make that capping dynamic for various contexts like the target being in DBNO or the target not being a player.*

*In an ongoing effort to make the AI archetypes easier to read we are removing the bombardier is removed with release 8 that will work towards giving each of them a clearer & more specific role. We are also reworking silhouettes to foster a split-second read of who is present in an engagement. Preferred engagement ranges rationalized by archetype families (Melee, Short ranged, med range, etc…) is also being rolled out with this release which should also help “read a battle”. Rumor out on the frontier has it that the bombardier is to eventually make a return in a different shape…*

*In a more behind-the-scene manner, spawning of all AI went from static scripted squad request & composition to a systemic & dynamic approach, this yield varied squads that can scale based on game time & game mode for example. We also now format spawn at spawn to specific contexts (Like hunts or enemy power levels linked to the planetary storm) the first manifestation of that is in their nameplates but we are furiously working to bring more eye candy to the looks of each distinct context’s signature.*

*Making everything dynamic turns the game towards the future, making it much more scalable for maintenance & balancing propagating automatically across all archetypes.*

## WEAPON & ABILITY CHANGES

##### Ability

* **Archive:Snare Trap**
	+ Added a larger collision box.

* **Turret coloring**
	+ A green or red outline dictates if the turret belongs to friend or foe

##### Archive:Gadgets

* **Archive:Kheper Revitalizer**
	+ Increased heal from 7 to 10 per heal tick

* **Scanner**
	+ Removed from the inventory
	+ Is now permanent in players NavMode
	+ If players are within 25 meters it will show up on the scanner.

##### Mods

* Removed unequip speed modifiers. In Release 7 we adjusted the unequip times to 0.3 for all weapons and 0.4 for heavy weapons. There were still a lot of mods that affected by this number. Therefore these multipliers are now removed. Affected are most of the Stocks, Barrels, Grips, Handles and the 8x and 16x scopes.

##### Weapon Mods

* **Archive:KBR Longshot**
	+ Upgrade 1 changed from 15% ROF to 10% Damage
	+ Upgrade 2 changed from + 15% Range to 10% ROF

* **Karla**
	+ Upgrade 1 changed from 10% AOE Radius to 5% Damage
	+ Upgrade 2 changed from 20% AOE Radius to 10% AOE Radius

* **Komrad**
	+ Upgrade 1 changed from 20% AOE Radius to 10% Damage
	+ Upgrade 2 changed from 10% Damage to 10% AOE Radius

* **Archive:PKR Maelstrom**
	+ Upgrade 1 changed from 15% Range to -10% Spread

* **Advocate**
	+ Upgrade 2 changed from 10% ROF to 5% Damage

* **Archive:Lacerator**
	+ Upgrade 1 changed from  5% Range to 10% ROF
	+ Upgrade 2 changed from 5% Damage to 10% Damage

* **Archive:Shattergun**
	+ Upgrade 2 changed from 5% Damage to 10% ROF

* **Archive:Kinetic Arbiter**
	+ Upgrade 1 changed from 15% ROF to +5% damage
	+ Upgrade 2 changed from 10% Damage to 15% ROF

* **Archive:C-32 Bolt Action**
	+ Upgrade 1 changed from 15% Range to 5% damage
	+ Upgrade 2 changed from 10% Damage to 10% ADS

* **Archive:S-76 PDW**
	+ Upgrade 2 changed from 10% Damage to 5% Damage

* **Archive:Gorgon**
	+ Upgrade 1 changed from 5% Damage to 15% Range
	+ Upgrade 2 changed from 15% Range to 5% Damage

* **Archive:Phasic Lancer**
	+ Upgrade 1 changed from 15% Range to 10% Damage

* **Archive:Manticore**
	+ Upgrade 1 changed from 15% Range to 15% Projectile Speed

* **Archive:Zeus Beam**
	+ Upgrade 1 changed from  15% Range to 5% damage

* **Archive:Asp Flechette Gun**
	+ Upgrade 1 changed from  15% Range to 15% Projectile Speed

* **Archive:Basilisk**
	+ Upgrade 2 changed from +1 ammo to Rof 15%

##### MISC

* **The escape button works as a back or close button on all menus!**
* **Directional information on Comm wheel VO**
	+ Left and right channel feedback based on where the VO is coming from

* **Subtitles update**
	+ The subtitles have been moved to a more central location on the HUD
	+ An option to toggle them has been added to the Settings menu

* **We updated the SFX for the following things**
	+ Scarab firing sounds
	+ Guarantee firing sounds
	+ Flechette reload
	+ Zeus Beam reload
	+ Bombardment volume
	+ Placing banners
	+ Turret hit marker

* **Emotes and Banners Comm Wheels**
	+ We added the ability to assign and use multiple emotes and banners in-match.
		- You will be able to assign the Emotes and Banners in the Appearance tab on the Station
		- Separate Comm Wheels exist on ‘J’ and ‘B’ respectively to choose an emote or banner

## KNOWN ISSUES

* Virtual Match, Shooting Range & the Tutorial are not playable during matchmaking
* Although the Season is deactivated, Players receive Challenge progress + Challenge progress updates
* 600 credit minerals are currently much more difficult than they should be
* The popup for BRPT Season 2 is currently broken. It will be fixed in a future release
* If your name contains special characters it is not shown properly
* 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