Level Zero: Extraction News

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[h2]A word from the Dev Team[/h2]

Hi community, we won’t be doing an event this week as we’ve shifted our focus on fixing issues.
We’ll be back with a new event and a new item next week! Have a great weekend!

[h3]General Changes[/h3]

• Temporarily reverted blackout music change, we’ll think how to improve that later on;
  
• Minor UI improvements;
  

[h3]Merc Changes[/h3]

• Flashlights are off by default when selecting them through quickslots;
  
• Temporarily removed two melee (fists) animations that allowed clipping through walls to interact with boxes;
  
• Reduced Speed Syringe duration from 120 to 60 seconds;
  
• Increased price for health syringes to 2800 (3 syringes in starter kit remains unchanged);
  
• Increased price of 7.62mm and 7.62mm NATO ammo by 50%;
  
• Fixed a few issues with incendiary grenades;
  

[h3]Alien Changes[/h3]

• Reverted heal change that reduced the healing effectiveness by 30%;
  
• Removed spread from Slime Spit (it now hits where you aim, holding will improve distance);
  
• Reduced Alien stagger time after breaking invisibility from 4 to 2 seconds;
  
• Reduced flare’s max damage in melee range by 10% (damage at longer range than a meter is not affected);
  
• Introduced light stacking damage limit, so that light DPS does not go beyond max damage received from one flare in melee;
  

[h3]Bug Fixes[/h3]

• Fixed issue with Switcher distance being lower then intended;
  
• Fixed an issue with Caves of Turion spawners where players could spawn in locked rooms;
  
• Fixed an issue where Tutorial could not be skipped when in matchmaking;
  
• Fixed the Who Wants To Be A Mercenary achievement so it now correctly completes on 1,000,000 credits;
  

Please restart your game to be able to play.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
[h3]Animation Improvements[/h3]

• Animations have been improved across the board to provide better visual feedback;
  
• Holomap no longer shakes in hands;
  
• Devices no longer shake in hands (removed idle sway);
  
• Jump animations allow shooting better precision while shooting;
  
• Weapon sway animations are improved depending on weapon weight;
  
• Better blend for crouch animations;
  
• Smoothed up third-person animations with weapons;
  
• Straightened weapon aim tilt.
  

[h3]Quick Item Swap[/h3]
Mercs can now swap weapons and items quicker, we’re skipping the hide animation.

[h3]New Weapons[/h3]

• TRYZUB bullpup semi-auto assault rifle
  
• 7.62 NATO SKAR-R
• Incendiary grenade
  
• Smoke grenade
  

[h3]New Syringes[/h3]

• Sprint Speed (temporarily boosts running speed)
  
• Load Capacity (temporarily increases load capacity, which means your stamina bar won’t be cut)
  
• Temporary Poison Resistance
• Passive Healing (a slower and cheaper version of the Instant Heal Syringe, this one heals you over time)
  

[h3]Rewards for Killing Alien Monsters[/h3]
Aliens now drop alien materials on death that can be sold for cash and REP or bartered for various items. New barters for alien materials were added.

[h3]Improved Tutorials[/h3]
We’ve revamped the tutorial sections for both aliens and mercs to better showcase their goals, tactics, and skills at their exposal. We’ll also be working on an offline tutorial section in the future.

[h3]Limited-Time Cosmetics[/h3]

[h3]- MERCS -[/h3]

⭐Reach character level 50 with your Mercenary character to obtain the Kyoto Forest skin. This skin is only obtainable during this wipe.

[h3]- ALIEN MONSTERS -[/h3]

⭐Reach character level 50 with your Alien Monster to obtain the Acid Petal skin. This skin is only obtainable during this wipe.
Note: unique cosmetics that serve as rewards for reaching maximum character levels with the Mercenary and Alien Monster; they are only obtainable until the next wipe.

[h3]Other Changes[/h3]

• Improved spawners on both maps for squads to spawn further away;
  
• Improved aliens hit registration;
  
• New Alien UI in the lobby—abilities have video previews now.
  
• In solo mode, main elevators can only extract one merc at a time.
  
• Cheater Report Reward - players whose report will lead to a successful ban of a cheater will receive a compensation reward;
  
• Added ammo and weapon attachment sounds;
  
• Added a media player to the main menu where players can select tracks/randomize, etc;
  
• Added 3 new ambient tracks to the main menu.
  

SERVER WIPE: The progress, including your stash, trader reputation, and Merc/Alien Monster levels, has been reset. Rewards in the form of unique cosmetic skins remain in your inventory.


On a side note, check out our new devblog where we discussed some immediate future plans for the game:

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]


[hr][/hr]

[h2]Greetings, Mercs and Those Who Lurk in Shadows[/h2]

Our fourth Level Zero: Extraction Developer Podcast is out. Nuclearjke, Executive Producer, Antishyr, Community Manager, and Osallivan, Art Director, chat about the recent alien changes and the reasoning behind them.

We're also discussing the upcoming wipe and the update that will be coming to the game with it on September 19th.

[/h3][previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
Hope you enjoy it! Let us know what you think!


[hr][/hr]

[h2]// INCOMING MESSAGE //[/h2]

EVENT GOALS

• Gather basic loot.
  
• Sell it to ANY TRADER for REP and CASH.
  

ALIENS HAVE AN ACTIVE 30% XP BONUS FOR ALIEN LEVEL.


The event end date/time is Monday, September 16th, 21:00 CET / 12 pm PDT / 3 pm EDT.


[hr][/hr]

[h2]A Word from the Dev Team[/h2]

Hi, community,

We’re committed to making the aliens versus mercs interactions feel difficult but fun and fair, and we’ve been doing steady changes, testing out new combat styles for aliens and other balance changes. With the patch this week, we’re making an overhaul to how alien works, removing unnecessary energy requirements for skills but balancing that out with shared cooldowns for strong combos like EMP and Scream Wave and introducing longer cooldowns on respawn to send aliens back after their death, giving mercs time to breathe. We’re also redesigning how lights/weapons do damage to aliens to allow players to use all tools at their disposal for the fight and give both sides a bit more time to react to the opponent's actions.

[h3]Merc Changes[/h3]

• Added a short delay between toggling flashlights on and off;
  
• Mercs can now only have one light-emitting device (flashlight/UV Lamp) in quick slots;
  
• Reduced tactical flashlight damage from 30 to 15;
  
• Improved visibility with tactical flashlight;
  
• FoxFive and G-17 have an additional 3 damage modifier per bullet;
  
• [Developer’s note: we’re currently working on rebalancing the damage values of guns to have damage modifiers over bullets to be able to better balance gunfire damage against both mercs and aliens, lowering the spread of DPS between different weapons against aliens]

[h3]Alien Changes[/h3]

• Aliens no longer need energy to use Slime Spit, Egg Trap, EMP, Scream Wave, Gas Cloud, and Scan;
  
• EMP and Scream Wave now have a shared cooldown of 5 seconds (using one skill causes the second one to go onto a 5 seconds cooldown);
  
• Aliens now have separate respawn cooldowns that are higher than on-use cooldowns;
  
• Acid Cloud now has 100 seconds cooldown on respawn (44 seconds regular cooldown - unchanged);
  
• EMP and Scream Wave now have 120 seconds cooldown on respawn and 60 seconds cooldown on use;
  
• Scan now has 180 seconds cooldown on respawn and 120 seconds cooldown on use;
  
• Slime Spit now has a 30 seconds cooldown on respawn (regular cooldown of 25 seconds unchanged);
  
• Egg Trap now has 40 seconds cooldown on respawn (regular cooldown of 30 seconds unchanged);
  
• Reduced Egg Trap Activation time to 2 seconds;
  
• Eggs now also reduce cooldowns when consumed (5 to 15 seconds, depending on the size);
  
• Updated UI: Circle around the skill now shows the remaining cooldown of the skill and added a visual sign that EMP & Scream Wave cooldowns are connected;
  
• Alien gun resistance has been lowered from 80% to 70%;
  
• Alien light resistance has been increased by 15%;
  
• Scream Wave debuff has been reduced to 1/2/3 seconds depending on the amount of mercs affected;
  
• Aliens have 10 energy on respawn;
  
• Heal energy cost has been doubled;
  
• Energy regeneration has been lowered by 30%;
  
• Alien attack damage has been reduced from 17 to 15;
  
• Incoming light damage has been adjusted further to match the visual outlines of visible light;
  

[h3]Bug Fixes[/h3]

• Fixed an issue when aliens' attack speed debuff was stuck for the whole match and did not correctly drop off after moving away from the light’s source;
  
• Resolution scale slider is now unavailable to change visually when DLSS is on;
  
• Fixed an issue that allowed stacking ammo into one magazine through dead bodies.
  

Please restart and update your game.