Sakebee 2270 Posted July 31, 2020 Hello everyone, A new patch is going up onto the Live servers for PC. This patch will be happening on Wednesday 8/5/2020. We are posting our notes a little early this week because there are a lot of changes to cover this time around (see overview for more details). The Patch is scheduled to start at 9 AM UTC and will last up to 6 hours. Console will have its normal maintenance starting at 9 AM UTC as well. OVERVIEW Our PC patch this week deals primarily with missions. Since Little Orbit took over, there has been a lot of talk about mission balance. We have been carefully listening to everyone's feedback and noting areas of improvement for some time now, but since Missions are the core of APB, these weren't changes we wanted to rush into. Any modifications to these core systems needed a strong understanding of APB gameplay and how everything fits together. As such, that is how we would like to frame this discussion: holistically. We are going to cover each of our goals for missions in a general sense before diving into the specifics in the changelog. This first mission pass is intended to provide as much improvement as possible to the APB player's experience without fundamentally changing any of the existing missions you know and love. Our efforts here were focused on reducing pain points, like unwieldy timers, odd group sizes for missions, or awkward objectives. We wanted our missions to flow. Additionally, we wanted to introduce as many opportunities for counter-play as we could to emphasize opportunities for skillful and exciting back and forth between players. Another area we knew we could improve upon is novelty. Many of our hardcore players have done the same set of missions thousands of times. In order to add some variety, we've gone back and found 50 missions that were previously disabled, added them back to the available mission pool, and updated them all to current mission standards. This means that, in addition to improved gameplay flow, there are also now many more missions to experience in any one gameplay session. Finally, our third area is balance. With so many different missions and objectives, it was important to us that each felt as fair as possible to either side. Many of our timing, point, and grouping changes were in service to this goal. There are many more changes than we have space to cover here or which can neatly fit into our three main pillars of Mission Flow, Mission Novelty, and Mission Balance. We will include a more detailed list of these changes in the change log below, but we encourage you to try them out for yourselves when the patch goes live. An important part of this process of improving APB is community feedback, so be sure to let us know what you think once you've gotten a chance to play! PC CHANGES/FIXES Mission Changes We've manually adjusted stage timers and point totals to account for various mission factors. Some examples include: Number of objectives Distance between objectives Size of task items (Small, Medium, Large) Objective location (Streets, Satellites, Open Areas) Final stage timers and point totals for stages that have points have been reworked to focus more on point totals and less on timers. Bonus time missions now end early when unopposed to prevent stage time pooling. Bonus time based missions now begin with a larger timer. Stage timers have been normalized when swapping between attack and defend stages. Missions where the first stage involves three objectives have had their stage timers increased to prevent the defenders from having an immediate advantage. Moved all VIP/Escort missions to a minimum group size of 3. Re-evaluated the minimum group sizes for every mission in the game. 50 previously disabled missions have been added back into the available mission pool and are updated to current mission standards. Modification Changes Turned Mobile Cover into an Orange Character Modification and reduced its HP value slightly, 650 HP -> 600 HP High Burn Fuel will now reduce Vehicle HP by 15%, in addition to its current effect. Consumable Changes Reduced the current HP damage of Epinephrine Injector from 50% damage -> 25% damage. Med Spray now also doubles your base HP regeneration in addition to its previous effect Renamed Resupply Box (Large) -> Resupply Box Resupply Box is now a medium size item Resupply Box has all the same functionality of the current Resupply Box (Large) Added Consumables into Wilde's shop in Social at the following prices: Epinephrine Injector - 5 charges for 2,000 APB$ Med Spray - 5 charges for 2,000 APB$ Resupply Box - 5 charges for 2,000 APB$ Satchel Charge - 5 charges for 2,000 APB$ Boom Box - 10 charges for 2,000 APB$ Changed how cooldowns work for deployables. The Cooldown starts right away, and the item will now last for a set amount of time unless destroyed: Mobile Cover (orange mod) Cooldown: 120s Duration: 60s Resupply Box Cooldown: 180s Duration: 90s Boombox Cooldown: 60s Duration: 45s Changes to remove the use duration on Spotter, Epinephrine Injector, Blowtorch and Med Spray will be coming in a subsequent patch Weapon Changes Reduced Blowtorch healing rate by 46% Hard damage dealt: -8.8 -> -5.6 Reduced Blowtorch ammo capacity from 800 -> 350 Reduced AAEPD 'Volcano JC' max hard damage from 1227 -> 800 Reduced ISSR-B hard damage from 72.9 -> 45 Reduced ISSR-A hard damage from 70.1 -> 51 Reduced SWARM hard damage from 50.7 -> 40.95 Car Changes Modified the HP values for cars in the following way: Bishada: 900 -> 1,150 (HBF 977) Jericho: 1,100 -> 1,150 (HBF 977) Vegas 4x4: 1,350 -> 1,150 (HBF 977) Vegas: 1,350 -> 1300 (HBF 1,105) Pioneer: 1,600 -> 1,350 (HBF 1,147) Espacio: 1,600 -> 1,350 (HBF 1,147) Growl: 950 -> 1150 (HBF 977) Mikro 900 -> 950 (HBF 807) Varzuga variants 900 -> 950 (HBF 807) Modified the Cargo Space for the following vehicles: Mikro: 4 -> 5 Vaquero: 4 -> 5 Rally Varzuga: 4 -> 5 Han Coywolf: 2 -> 5 8/4 Additions Increased the Cooldown for Remote Detonator from 0s -> 90s The new Mobile Cover Orange mod will be available from the Joker Store for 100 JT This post is cross-referenced under Game Updates for your convenience. Sakebee 67 15 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Frosi 722 Posted July 31, 2020 (edited) @VanilleKeks bruh? Looking forward to seeing these changes hitting live. Edited July 31, 2020 by Frosi Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Kiida 455 Posted July 31, 2020 (edited) Remote det slipped through the cracks again. Needs a proper cooldown on par with the 4x4 Firebomb so it can't be spammed. All I have to say. Otherwise great patch. Edited July 31, 2020 by Kiida 16 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Knite 158 Posted July 31, 2020 Varzuga owners rejoice! 3 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Akumaka 33 Posted July 31, 2020 Man it still feels so weird to have real developers in charge of this game nowadays. Great job, LO! 20 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Flaws 1033 Posted July 31, 2020 All of this seems very good on paper. I'm excited. 7 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Iazer 204 Posted July 31, 2020 (edited) Next changes, something to true ogre, something to percs, something to PMG, something to HVR, something to ATAC, something to FAR and something to stabba Edited August 1, 2020 by Iazer 3 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
vsb 6171 Posted July 31, 2020 wow this is a wild patch, some good stuff in here 5 minutes ago, Sakebee said: Reduced ISSR-B hard damage from 72.9 -> 45 Reduced ISSR-A hard damage from 70.1 -> 51 Reduced SWARM hard damage from 50.7 -> 40.95 can we get the reasoning behind these changes? i get that these guns are meant to be more hybrid anti vehicle/anti personnel but nerfing problematic vehicle hp doesn't mean much if some of the most effective AV guns also get a hard damage nerf also don't get why the issr-a gets more hard damage than the issr-b even though it fires faster 5 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Acornie 490 Posted July 31, 2020 This is wonderful, so happy to see these things get looked at and balanced, finally! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Frosi 722 Posted July 31, 2020 Just now, 404 said: can we get the reasoning behind these changes? i get that these guns are meant to be more hybrid anti vehicle/anti personnel but nerfing problematic vehicle hp doesn't mean much if some of the most effective AV guns also get a hard damage nerf also don't get why the issr-a gets more hard damage than the issr-b even though it fires faster This is to seperate meta guns from proper anti-vehicle guns, these weapons (except the ISSR-A) already get a lot of use on Live and with these changes could easily become overpowered and continue to overshadow the proper AV guns such as the ALIG / DMR AV. The reduction in hard damage on these guns should give the others a bit of a breathing room without risking them becoming flat out overpowered. The ISSR-A is the odd one out in that list but 70 hard damage on that weapon felt generally unreasonable and while its an already underused gun making it extremely overpowered hard damage wise is probably not the way to make it viable and fun to play. As for why it is left with more hard damage, if I had to guess its because of it being an already relatively bad gun and also have its hard damage drop off sooner than the ISSR-B. 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Resine 144 Posted July 31, 2020 It's a shame that you didn't bring dual VIP mission as opposed to VIP mission that is heavily one sided most of the times. 8 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Iazer 204 Posted July 31, 2020 "I love Wednesdays" - rooq "I now also love Wednesdays" - lazer Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
LilyRain 674 Posted July 31, 2020 Half the vehicles in this game come with explosion-stats on the left, and some others (for whatever reason) have the stats on the right.. which sadly include the Pioneer and Espacio. It is very clear that a Pioneer/Espacio exploding will result in death EVEN with the mighty Flak Jacket equipped, add to that their heightened explosion range and you get an obvious new meta: Ditch High-Burn-Fuel, slap in Explosives 3.. Kindly consider changing these stats as well for the patch as combining these with remote-detonator is comically busted & will render your changes 40% useless. Changing these numbers won't take time, ninja them in with the patch pls 6 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Aeronaut 647 Posted July 31, 2020 it's been awhile since we've seen a juicy patch with numbers changing 3 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
speee 90 Posted July 31, 2020 Can't wait to car det han coywolf you all. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
CookiePuss 5378 Posted July 31, 2020 Very exciting stuff, very exciting indeed. 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Catgorl 67 Posted July 31, 2020 This is great news!!! Godspeed, Little Orbit! 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Sadira 292 Posted July 31, 2020 For the first time in like forever, I just may start doing missions again. 5 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
SkittyM 287 Posted July 31, 2020 28 minutes ago, Kiida said: Remote det slipped through the cracks again. Needs a proper cooldown on par with the 4x4 Firebomb so it can't be spammed. Excuse you, i paid tree fiddy to have that dismissed. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
rooq 175 Posted July 31, 2020 (edited) On behalf of the SPCT please enjoy this patch. Remember that nothing is set in stone. Don't forget to post threads and comments airing your thoughts and opinions, the good and the bad. See you guys tomorrow on the open beta Edited July 31, 2020 by rooq 3 5 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
vsb 6171 Posted July 31, 2020 21 minutes ago, Frosi said: This is to seperate meta guns from proper anti-vehicle guns, these weapons (except the ISSR-A) already get a lot of use on Live and with these changes could easily become overpowered and continue to overshadow the proper AV guns such as the ALIG / DMR AV. The reduction in hard damage on these guns should give the others a bit of a breathing room without risking them becoming flat out overpowered. The ISSR-A is the odd one out in that list but 70 hard damage on that weapon felt generally unreasonable and while its an already underused gun making it extremely overpowered hard damage wise is probably not the way to make it viable and fun to play. As for why it is left with more hard damage, if I had to guess its because of it being an already relatively bad gun and also have its hard damage drop off sooner than the ISSR-B. i'll wait until i can test this ingame, but i feel like nerfing the weapons people like to use for AV in order to force/encourage the use of the pure AV is a poor way to give pure AV guns a bigger niche 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Frosi 722 Posted July 31, 2020 Just now, 404 said: i'll wait until i can test this ingame, but i feel like nerfing the weapons people like to use for AV in order to force/encourage the use of the pure AV is a poor way to give pure AV guns a bigger niche Well I believe these weapons should still be around as strong as they are currently on live, maybe slightly worse or even slightly better but the difference in the actual AV weapons like the DMR is insanely noticable. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
randomguy343 20 Posted July 31, 2020 Can we get a buff on true ogre? Currently it feels just underwhelming, losing fights at close range from any colby shotgun or even jg ones. 4 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Hexerin 1140 Posted July 31, 2020 (edited) So this confirms that we aren't changing the yellow consumables into proper mods then. That's a shame. What's the logic on reducing the hard damage at max ramp for the AAEPD? If anything, it should have its health damage reduced to move it away from anti-personnel. Why is Remote Detonator still not heavily nerfed (or better yet, removed from the game)? Really good update though, fucking hell. It's nice to see the game actually being developed again. Also, did LO miss the existence of Resupply (Medium) in the JT shop? Cause that's literally what they just changed Resupply (Large) into. Edited July 31, 2020 by Hexerin 5 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
