SYNTHETIK 2 News

[p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]Hey everyone! [/p][p]We are very glad about the positive reception of the Engineer Update![/p][p]Update 19 is a big spring cleaning update, with a heavy focus on fixes and quality of life.[/p][p][/p][hr][/hr][p][/p][p][/p][h3]Core Fixes[/h3]

• [p]Fixes varied issues with chat[/p]
• [p]Fixed issues around turrets not shooting[/p]
• [p]Fixed exploits around recycling[/p]
• [p]Fixed tutorial using difficulty modifiers[/p]
• [p]Fixed pickups not disapearing visually[/p]
• [p]Fixed negative health issue where players should have died but didn’t[/p]
• [p]Fixed issues around healing[/p]
• [p]Fixed issue with un-setting hotkeys[/p]
• [p]Fixed Power scaling not showing on buffs spawned by effects (scaling worked, but UI didn’t)[/p]
• [p]Fixed Mortar shots sometimes being visually offset[/p]
• [p]Fixed charges instantly granting another charge when used (e.g., Sabotage Package)[/p]
• [p]Fixed charge shader not flooring correctly (4 charges showing as 5)[/p]
• [p]Fixed charge recharge display not properly appearing on items[/p]
• [p]Fixed buffs from item upgrades (armor, speed bonus, ammo regen) not stacking correctly[/p]
• [p]Fixed varied Engineer related issues as described in the Engineer section[/p]
• [p]Many reported action issues were fixed[/p]
• [p]Fixed broken achievements[/p]
• [p]Fixed that trading jammed weapons made jamming unrecoverable[/p]
• [p]Fixed varied issues in end-screen[/p]
• [p]Fixed stat displays of certain power scaling stats such as variant power[/p]
• [p]Fixed clients not seeing Ping markers from the host[/p]
• [p]Fixed issues around currencies[/p]
• [p]Fixed an issue where you would gain doubled credits[/p]
• [p]Fixed explosive shots (60-stack version) targeting self as fallback for minor damage component[/p]
• [p]Fixed Laser Implosion bug[/p]
• [p]Last Defender shop opening now grants 4 seconds of invulnerability[/p]
• [p]After selecting a skill, the Class panel disappears, preventing class selection until clicking elsewhere.[/p]
• [p]Language selection: [c]PortugueseBrazil[/c] is out of bounds for available themes; defaults to standard theme.[/p]
• [p]Fixed broken cinematic in Oilrig Hovercraft Boss[/p]
• [p]And more.[/p]

[p][/p][p][/p][hr][/hr][p][/p][p][/p]

• [p]Mortar Shots now have different visuals depending on the type of mortar[/p][p]We added new visuals for different mortar type attacks, such as shock mortar, flame mortar, 3 different types of explosive mortars and more. This makes the enemy attack patterns visually more distinct and interesting, while also reduces confusion about friendly vs enemy attack patterns.[/p]
• [p]End-screen menu layout is now much closer to the main menu layout to reduce confusion.[/p]
• [p]Multiple minor UI improvements[/p]

[p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][hr][/hr][p][/p][p][/p][h3]General[/h3]

• [p]Lost & Found starter weapons now gain a random variant on first upgrade[/p]
• [p]Added sphere-cast for explosive ammo variants and Fireball Cannon ammo for better hit detection[/p]

[p][/p][h3]Weapon Balance Changes[/h3]

• [p]Industrial Breaching Cutter[/p]
  • [p]Damage: [c]0.8 → 1.2x[/c] (+50%)[/p]
  • [p]Ammo pickup: [c]180 → 120[/c][/p]
  • [p]Firing slowdown reduced by 25%[/p]
• [p]Rubber Grenade Launcher: Improved ejection speed[/p]
• [p]Spike Fireball Cannon: Added alt ammo – Curveball[/p]
• [p]Area Saturator: Fire rate tripled; reload speed reduced[/p]
• [p]Switched GM6 Lynx and R2000H perks[/p]
• [p]KS-23: Added feedback to ammo unlock[/p]
• [p]Flak Cannon:[/p]
  • [p]Damage: [c]3.5 → 4.2x[/c][/p]
  • [p]Ammo reduced by 25%[/p]
• [p]Tec-9 full-auto upgrade damage reduced by 10%[/p]
• [p]Breaching variant:[/p]
  • [p]Increased burst-fire delay[/p]
  • [p]Fire rates increased[/p]
  • [p]Scaling reduced[/p]
  • [p]Deviation no longer scales[/p]
• [p]Ninata Acid Shot cooldown: [c]6 → 4[/c][/p]
• [p]General Acid Tick damage: [c]100 → 200[/c][/p]
• [p]Rex:[/p]
  • [p]Starting ammo: [c]60 → 120[/c][/p]
  • [p]Pickup ammo: [c]70 → 80[/c][/p]
  • [p]Luck: [c]10% → 20%[/c][/p]

[p][/p][h3]Weapon Fixes[/h3]

• [p]Fixed CR18 chance being inaccurate[/p]
• [p]Fixed ZB26 Spare Parts chance showing 33% instead of 45%[/p]
• [p]Fixed Double Barrel misleading tooltip[/p]
• [p]PPQ last-shot perk now applies only to the final shot (not last two); shield cost [c]150 → 100[/c][/p]
• [p]Removed outdated cooldown from Hot Loaded[/p]
• [p]Abomination no longer has a hidden damage bonus[/p]
• [p]Fixed Ambusher incorrect check[/p]
• [p]Fixed Scavenger giving mismatched ammo types[/p]
• [p]Fixed Unstable Ammo ignoring cooldown[/p]
• [p]Improved Hot-Shot conversion scaling[/p]
• [p]Ion Quick Swap now correctly grants speed; removed ejection speed[/p]
• [p]Fixed Laser Divine Blessing affecting only laser perks[/p]
• [p]Nano Armor tooltip fixed (10 → 15)[/p]
• [p]Extra Shot buffs now grant an extra shot, not extra pellets[/p]
• [p]Ultracrit scaling adjusted[/p]
• [p]Varied other minor fixes[/p]

[p][/p][hr][/hr][p][/p][p][/p]

• [p]Bulletstorm Trigger Assembly armor penetration: [c]−50 → −50%[/c][/p]
• [p]Chromatic Alloy improved[/p]
• [p]Fixed Weapon Super Recharger cooldown reduction[/p]
• [p]Auto-Loader reload amount: [c]5 → 3[/c][/p]
• [p]Terror Lafette now also grants +50% projectile range[/p]
• [p]Fixed Tri-Bolt Carrier not granting extra shotgun stats[/p]
• [p]Fixed Golden Boy attachments disappearing[/p]
• [p]Commando weapon mastery changed:[/p]
  • [p]From 60% free extra shot[/p]
  • [p]To 60% no-ammo-cost chance[/p]

[p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][hr][/hr][p][/p][p][/p][p]You can now see incoming healing very clearly, both in the HUD and on unit health-bars. This currently has a small side effect where you can see added extra health from health scaling of summons however.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][hr][/hr][p][/p][p][/p]

• [p]High Power changed from −200 shield to −10% max health, Power 80>60%[/p]
• [p]Disc of Justicia no longer stuns players[/p]
• [p]Kernel Shop cost: [c]2500 → 2000[/c][/p]
• [p]Heat Ray:[/p]
  • [p]Damage tick range: [c]6 → 10 m[/c][/p]
  • [p]Burn & slow range: [c]6 → 7 m[/c][/p]
• [p]Fixed Stasis Sphere using outdated healing logic[/p]
  • [p]Invulnerability: [c]0.5 → 1s[/c][/p]
• [p]Ignition Core can now ignite itself[/p]
• [p]Psionic Catalyst range: infinite → [c]20 m[/c][/p]
• [p]Thunderstorm Uplink ranges improved[/p]
• [p]Guardian duration: [c]20 → 30s[/c], cooldown [c]70 → 80[/c][/p]
• [p]Ghost Spawner ghost duration: [c]~20 → ~10s[/c][/p]

[p][/p][hr][/hr][p][/p][p][/p][h3]Machine Hunter[/h3]

• [p]Snappy now has melee repel, dealing damage and stunning melee attackers[/p]
• [p]Synergy reloads 1 shot on HVAP / HEAT usage[/p]

[p][/p][h3]Recon Sniper[/h3]

• [p]New starter healing item: Life-Ripper Shots[/p]
• [p]Early game more dynamic; reinforces sniper fantasy[/p]
• [p]Target Laser hold time for guaranteed crit reduced[/p]

[p][/p][p][/p][hr][/hr][p][/p][p][/p]

• [p]Engineer perks are out of testing; level requirements enabled[/p]
• [p]Fixed Overdrive Station not being clickable[/p]
• [p]Improved sentry targeting and ranges[/p]
• [p]Improved Spider Mine explosion trigger range[/p]
• [p]Greatly improved range of area denial system[/p]
• [p]Improved cone of surge 3 area denial system[/p]
• [p]Fixed area denial system not using 3 charges[/p]
• [p]Overclocking now grants:[/p]
  • [p]50% damage reduction for 1.25s (summons survive longer)[/p]
  • [p]Repair Kit doubles this effect[/p]
• [p]Summon health loss reworked:[/p]
  • [p]Uses damage instead of negative regeneration (more debuggable)[/p]
  • [p]Faster decay offset by damage reduction[/p]
• [p]Unidentified Potion:[/p]
  • [p]Negative effects now work again[/p]
  • [p]Stat upgrade chance reduced[/p]
  • [p]No longer always heals[/p]
• [p]Economy Booster: [c]300 → 200[/c] credits[/p]
• [p]Fixed multi-overclock only working on summons and not on yourself[/p]
• [p]New Engineer Evolution: Ability Shuffle[/p]
• [p]Fixed Turret Shuffle spawning multiple turrets instead of rerolling[/p]
• [p]Gambling Kit:[/p]
  • [p]Higher chance for Epic / Legendary weapons[/p]
  • [p]Max recycle stacks capped at 25 (prevents infinite scaling)[/p]
• [p]Fixed Mortar firing without cooldown and clearing content instantly[/p]
• [p]Fixed Surge exceeding 3 and causing issues[/p]
• [p]Fixed Economy Booster exceeding 3 Surge[/p]
• [p]Suspicious SSeth Beholder:[/p]
  • [p]Duration: [c]30 → 20s[/c][/p]
  • [p]Evil check interval: [c]4 → 3s[/c][/p]
• [p]Spider Mines cooldown: [c]30 → 22s[/c][/p]
• [p]Fixed currency validation issues (Missile Drone)[/p]
• [p]Fixed Metal Storm not correctly checking the cool-down[/p]

[p][/p][p][/p][hr][/hr][p][/p][p][/p]

• [p]Added a concept of Squad formation for entities[/p][p]This is currently in testing but already in use for mil-grade attack drones as example. Entities forming around a squad leader try to stay in one of multitude of switchable formations.[/p][p][/p]
• [p]We now standardized the de-spawning to no longer use negative health regeneration which was technically quite "un-safe". The base summon durations might have increased a bit to compensate but the destruction phases are now more quick, to prevent massive amount of summons but most notably prevent too many damage packets being sent from constant damage ticks.[/p]
• [p]Varied item summons now properly de-spawn after a time which did not have proper duration set[/p]

[p][/p][hr][/hr][p][/p][p][/p][p]Up next: Our priority right now will stay on stability, UX and polish. Additionally we are working on the new arctic-alternative, and a new boss fight.[/p][p][/p][p]Stay tuned![/p]

• [p]Team FFG[/p]

[p][/p][p][/p]

[p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]Hey everyone![/p][p]Update 18 is now live just in time for the holiday season!
We hope you had a great 2025 and a we're wishing you a wonderful start to 2026 : )[/p][p][/p]

• [p]New Engineer Class[/p]
• [p]Steam Achievements[/p]
• [p]Class Prestige[/p]
• [p]Attachment Refinements[/p]
• [p]Low End Performance & Loading speed[/p]
• [p]Quality of life changes[/p]

[p][/p][p][/p][hr][/hr][p][/p][p][/p]

• [p]R2000H damage 7 > 8.2x[/p]
• [p]PPQ perk shield cost 250 > 150, damage 50>75%[/p]
• [p]Retuned Fusion pistol to have more burst damage upfront[/p]
• [p]KS23 now has a new Perk[/p]
• [p]Rayon new perk, Laser Calibration[/p]
• [p]Optimized mag for AM Tech now increases reload speed and ejection speed[/p]

[p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]Attachments v3 seemed to be a really good change in the right direction and there is a much clearer separation of the game elements now as a cause. However some categories of attachments were maybe struggling a bit with variation, and some attachments needed some tweaks. Overall the new changes should bring things in a really good state.[/p][p][/p]

• [p]New Divine Attachment: Golden Boy Package - fills all attachment slots with random attachments[/p]
• [p]Blessed mag: 75% magsize -30% reload > +15 Magsize, +30% Class experience[/p]
• [p]Offload Cycler ultra now a legendary attachment in multiple categories[/p]
• [p]Ammo TP is now in multiple categories[/p]
• [p]ATP5 Ammo Teleporter is now in Mixed major category[/p]
• [p]Chromatic alloy is now a legendary attachment in multiple categories[/p]
• [p]Titanium Tripod reworked, is now a legendary attachment in multiple categories[/p]
• [p]Kill shot now has safety for 1 ammo, 15%>30% threshold, 100>50% damage[/p]
• [p]X-Shot receiver now increases extra shot count for other sources of extra shot[/p]
• [p]Tri-Bolt carrier removed -25% firerate[/p]
• [p]Fixed wildfire barrel not working[/p]
• [p]Turbo Chip now has 1x scaling[/p]
• [p]Testing: Zero pulse grip now adds 100% dmg to stunned[/p]
• [p]Kill counter now stacks the reload negative correctly[/p]

[p][/p][h2]Other Gameplay:[/h2]

• [p]Machine Hunter now rolls into cover (Turtle Shield) making it more fluid to use[/p]
• [p]Riotguard Judge bikes +1000 HP (*scaling), despawn 30>60s[/p]
• [p]Heavy Gunner custom-extended now only works on chest drops[/p]
• [p]Shield link cooldown adjusted[/p]
• [p]Metal Storm cooldown adjusted[/p]
• [p]New Item: Microwave Emitter[/p]

[p][/p][p][/p][hr][/hr][p][/p][p][/p][p]You can now prestige a class after reaching level 25.[/p][p]This resets all class progression and grants a special prestige icon in the Lobby and Character menus to indicate your dedication. There are 5 different stages of icons.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]Prestige is a purely intrinsic reward and might be expanded in the future.
In comparison with S1 we did not want to link a perk to prestige to not make people feel forced to reset their class to get the full benefit but let us know what you think.[/p][p]For the next iteration we will change that it does not reset class data unlocks and add improved info UI.
Careful! Clicking the button will instantly prestige the class right now.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]The new Engineer is finally here![/p][p]The Engineer is a advanced support class which relies heavily on summoned constructs, can repair and boost friendly units with his over-clocker likes to play in the backline.[/p][p]For the class we wanted to do a real evolution of the S1 classic, with a wider loadout, more build choices and more depth. [/p][p][/p][h2]⮩ Surge Mechanic[/h2][p]Engineer has a new Mechanic, ⚡️Surge, which is obtained from kills. You can have up to 3 Surge.[/p][p]Surge offers special effects for basically all Engineer abilities if the ability is used at a certain Surge level.[/p][p][/p][p]Some Examples:[/p]

• [p]Mortar Turret - Now fires a flare and gains incendiary ammunition[/p]
• [p]Sentry Turret - Produces claymore mines and gains plating[/p]
• [p]Spider Module - Spawns a special Damage Absorbing Spider, which can soak a lot of damage and explodes in a huge radius based on soaked damage.[/p]

[p][/p][h2]⮩ Loadout[/h2][p]The Loadout of Engineer is much more diverse now. Firstly the Engineer can pick from 3 different types of Turrets, a classic LMG all-rounder, a close range high burst Assault Turret, and a long-range, long-duration Mortar Turret. [/p][p]The Overclocker returns as a mobility option but we also added the classic dash+item combo.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]The Specialization Ability is where the Loadout really shines, with many highly different options:[/p][p][/p][p]🔶 Spider Module - Explosive Spider or ⚡️⚡️⚡️Damage Absorbing Suicide Spiders[/p][p]🔶 Missile Drone - A long range damage dealer. Spam based on ⚡️Surge. [/p][p]🔶 Area Jammer - Slowing Device / ⚡️⚡️⚡️Wall Piercing Stunning Emitter[/p][p]🔶 Assault Mode - Offensive Boost and creates laser drones based on ⚡️Surge.[/p][p]🔶 Sseth-Up Sentry - Pocket Turret. ⚡️⚡️⚡️Dangerous Beholder Unit which can change teams.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]Additionally we have 3 utility options:[/p][p][/p][p]🔶 Unidentified Potion - Causes one random effect, including healing and stat upgrades[/p][p]🔶 Overdrive Station - Heals in an area and grants ⚡️Surge on kills within proximity[/p][p]🔶 Supply Box - The already known ammo box[/p][p][/p][p][/p][h2]⮩ Class Kits[/h2][p]The Engineer also offers 3 distinct Kits:[/p][p][/p][p]🔶 Repair Kit - The most classic kit. Strong repairs, and a Stasis Gun which offers unique utility[/p][p]🔶 Technomancer Kit - Summons can have elite ranks and has a mind-control weapon.[/p][p]🔶 Gambler Kit - Gains extra randomized benefits from recycling and taking risks![/p][p][/p][h2]⮩ Try it yourself![/h2][p]Engineer is now live, so just give it a try! Keep in mind that this is the first version, and while we already got very positive feedback from the private testing, there will surely be more improvements and tweaks coming, so let us know what you think![/p][p][/p][p][/p][hr][/hr][p][/p][p][/p]

• [p]Many effects which could attack the player have been changed[/p]
• [p](Lacerator, Bloodbane, Smart Ricochet, Shock Conductor..)[/p]
• [p]Fixed missing Tooltips in Armory & Escalation Settings[/p]
• [p]Improved clarity of Escalation buttons[/p]
• [p]Purchased Permanent Upgrades now show an indicator on the next open that its active[/p]
• [p]Added Quit Game popup[/p]
• [p]You can now quickly recycle items on the ground by pressing the button[/p][p][/p]

[p][/p][hr][/hr][p][/p][p][/p][h2]⮩ Binary Serialization[/h2][p]We did a rework of JSON configuration serialization to a binary serialization which is a speed up in initial loading times, especially on low-end.[/p][p][/p][h2]⮩ Contact Shadows (Experimental)[/h2][p]For the "Minimal" Graphics settings we are testing screen-space contact shadows, which don't have to trace all the geometry in the game and are much cheaper than normal shadows, however they can have some noticeable graphical artefacts. If people don't like it we might revert this to classic shadow maps or even no shadows for the low end setting.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]Screen-Space Contact shadows have performance similar to no shadows, but still offer shadowing of the scene. Keep in mind that the performance display in the screenshot is not fully accurate. Contact shadows have a also a GPU cost but they do not require to re-render all the geometry in the scene like classic shadows. They trace based on screen depth, so they also cannot have shadowing from objects off-screen, and they have significant artifacts & accuracy issues.[/p][p]This is mostly for the super low-end. Let us know if this is adding any improvements to your framerate or if it just makes things look worse. If you are already CPU bound or bound by other factors, this might actually not be an improvement and just a visual downgrade, as such we need feedback based on your hardware.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][hr][/hr][p][/p][p][/p][p]We finally added steam achievements, in the first pass 34 in total. Let us know if anything is unobtainable or feels too hard to achieve. [/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][hr][/hr][p][/p][p][/p][p]As usual we made many small fixes based on things you reported. As we are doing exponentially less breaking changes, the game will become more and more pristine with every report and fix, so keep it coming![/p][hr][/hr][p][/p][p][/p][p]We also worked on our unique graphic design tool pipeline, which allows us to make much faster graphical content on higher quality, including videos, gifs and more. This is a significant time saver in the long run and you can see some pictures in this post already being created with it.[/p][p][/p][p]We are also working on more controller improvements and console certifications which are quite challenging but doing great progress.[/p][p][/p][p]Up next: A brand new late-game Environment, item mirroring and more![/p][p][/p][p]That's it! Have fun![/p]

• [p]Team FFG[/p]

[p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p]

[p]Hey everyone![/p][p]We've got a bunch of fixes and some tweaks for you, before we work on U18.[/p][p]
[/p][h2]🔶 General Fixes[/h2][p][/p]

• [p] Eject/reload whitelisted for double keybinding.[/p]
• [p] Better handling of corrupted (mod) depotfiles, ignores specific broken configs instead of aborting full import.[/p]
• [p] Fixed reviving host player can lead to host being invulnerable until map change.[/p]
• [p] Item swapping properly sets cooldown/charges etc on swap.[/p]
• [p] Net-Shot flashing very brightly fixed.[/p]
• [p] Cleaned up some outdated elements in armory.[/p]

[p][/p][hr][/hr][p][/p][h2]🔶 UI & Visuals[/h2][p][/p]

• [p] Improved Extended FPS Counter.[/p]
• [p] Fix for abilities having odd hover hitboxes [/p]
• [p] Zir Shrine - Terror temporarily only gives Terrorlevel.[/p]
• [p] Modding menu now overlaps chat.[/p]
• [p] Matchmaking invite is now better positioned.[/p]

[p][/p][p][/p][hr][/hr][p] [/p][h2]🔶 Campaign[/h2][p][/p]

• [p] Ability Compositor now spawns more reliably.[/p]
• [p] Cursed and Chrono chests are now considered upgrades of normal chests.[/p]

[p] [/p][p][/p][hr][/hr][p][/p][p][/p][h2] 🔶 Balancing Changes [/h2][p][/p]

• [p]15 Conversion Tech Perks have negative scaling minimized.[/p]
• [p]Kill Counter damage fixed.[/p]
• [p]Demolisher Mastery Ammo Fixed.[/p]
• [p]Sniper AOE Mark Target and Cage grenade amount reduced by 35%.[/p]
• [p]Stoner damage 0.9 > 0.96.[/p]
• [p]SK-9 damage 1.45 > 1.55.[/p]
• [p]Dusk deviation 3 > 2, no firing reset acceleration 5>15.[/p]
• [p]RG-4 now has a magazine attachment.[/p]
• [p]Added 2 Red attachments to Trigger attachment slot as trigger was less diverse than others[/p]
• [p]Fixed Nano Infustion not working as intended[/p]
• [p]Fixed Dynamic reflector shooting when no enemy is near[/p]
• [p]Fixed Formshaper only working while moving[/p][p][/p]

[p][/p][hr][/hr][p] [/p][h2]🔶 Variant Changes[/h2]

• [p] Ambusher now deals bonus damage on ambush.[/p]
• [p] Ammo Printing removed negative magazine size.[/p]
• [p] H-Velocity now increases damage by 5%.[/p]
• [p] Less Lethal now has a 0.5 > 1s stun on 2s cooldown.[/p]
• [p] Absorbing > Evolving, now stacks up 1 damage up to 250 times.[/p]
• [p] Scavenger now increases magazine and ammo, comes with 1 alt ammo type.[/p]
• [p] Shadow > Black-Out. Low magazine, Extreme weakpoint damage.[/p]
• [p] Tyrant now gives additional % lifesteal (harpoon etc).[/p]
• [p] Ultralight variant name fixed.[/p]

[p][/p][p]Have fun![/p][p]Team FFG[/p][p][/p][p][/p]

[p][/p][p][/p][p]Hey everyone![/p][p]We were listening very close to your feedback and worked hard on a ton of fixes, QOL changes and improvements. U17 has a strong focus on Fixes, P2P and in-game progression.[/p][p]
[/p][hr][/hr][p][/p][p][/p][p]Attachments V3 and Synergy items are a long way coming. While the previous attachments were well balanced and technically a good composition in a vacuum, attachments did overstep into items too much and strangely overlapped sometimes into item and ability effects, while often not having such direct effect on a weapon itself. [/p][p]So we wanted to make weapon upgrades more weapon based, and have items define more your overall loadout. Attachments V3 is cleaning up the systems, refinding the upgrade progression and putting things where they belong. [/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][h2]⮩ Big Attachment Improvements[/h2][p]🔸New Attachments across the board![/p][p]🔸New Attachment Category for Energy Weapons: Cable[/p][p]🔸New Attachment Category for Launchers & Shotguns: Loader[/p][p]🔸New Attachment Category for Weapons with Underbarrel: Underbarrel[/p][p]🔸New Attachment Category splits between Burst, Semi, Auto[/p][p]🔸New Attachment Category for: Handguns / Starters[/p][p]🔸Attachments look more like attachments and add more weapon based effects[/p][p]🔸Attachments were sometimes overcomplicated, this has been improved[/p][p]🔸Attachments which felt like items are now items[/p][p]🔸Weapons now have more tailored attachment slots to their needs[/p][p]🔸Weapons with historically poor choices (Launchers..) now have much better upgrades[/p][p]🔸Improved Attachment UI with visible text for better understanding[/p][p][/p][h2]⮩ More Interactions[/h2][p]3 Systems Problem: We had been feeling a strange dynamic with the in-game progression where it felt like we had 3 different systems, mostly independent of each other. Items and weapons barely interacted, while (in comparison to S1) we now had powerful Perks from Terminals, which in hind-sight seemingly are trying to compensate for the lack of interaction between items and weapons.[/p][p][/p][p]Attachments V3 & Synergy items are now here to add more interaction between the gameplay layers.
With the latest changes to item upgrades being more prominent, and more item synergies being added, we now have a much deeper interaction between systems, which leads to more variation in builds, more weapons being viable and more desireable item combinations. [/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][h2]⮩ Better Starters[/h2][p]Starter weapons were rarely upgraded and rarely worth so. With new starter-based attachments this is helped but not fully solved. However since now the categories exist, we may expand on this as needed.[/p][p]We also liked the idea of having some "cross weapon" benefits which affect your handgun and all your weapons, like Recon Scope or Offload Cycler so we are testing these as optional Synergy items and which further benefit all your weapons.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][hr][/hr][p][/p][p][/p][p]16 Synergy Items have been added through the Alchemy shop.[/p][p]You also have a small chance to get one through the mystery (lost & found) crate.[/p][p]Synergy items act as normal items but are sort of like a "glue" in between items, weapons and abilities, often offering effects which works across multiple parts of a build.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]As example Ambrosia printer enhances all effects with the tag "Printing" and quickly recharges them.[/p][p]Missile control triggers from all missiles, including abilities and things like the Object 29 launcher.[/p][p]Synergy items allow for more synergistic builds and more build options and expand the item pool.[/p][p][/p][p]Items are and always were intentionally the main progression outside of weapons and they now take back their rightful place (together with the changes to item upgrade shop occurance), while previously the terminal perks have acted a bit as a "filler" to compensate for lack of item progression.[/p][p][/p][h2]⮩ Flexible Healing Item / +1 Item Slot[/h2][p][/p][p]We changed the healing ability to be an item and increased maximum item slots from 4 to 5.[/p][p]This means you have more choices with your loadout with the potential to share or recycle your healing item, or have a dedicated healer on the team even. [/p][p]If you prefer the previous hotkey behavior you can re-bind your key and or set the power slot setting to your liking.[/p][p][/p][hr][/hr][p][/p][p][/p][p]Predicting what will happen / "Network Prediction" is a notoriously hard challenge and has been iterated over a long time. With the latest upgrades to our kill and damage prediction, the feeling while playing is now extremely direct and virtually instant. [/p][p]You should feel an immediate improvement in the game feel when playing online![/p][p][/p][hr][/hr][p][/p][p][/p][p]After many player requests, we are testing a new Steam Peer 2 Peer (P2P) networking system to compare it against the current server-based solution, which includes improved prediction logic.[/p][p]We have been seeing good results internally, but now we need your real-world data.[/p][p][/p][p]We are especially eager to get feedback from players who have historically had issues with disconnects or connection stability on the dedicated server system. Please let us know how the P2P based networking works for you.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]The dedicated server system has been working solidly but a subset of players report repeated issues with connection to the servers. Next step for us to improve the situation would be to set up more locations and our own hardware instead of rented capacity, which is beyond the scope of Synthetik 2.[/p][p]P2P also would allow us to add modding in co-op, as such we are looking at this for the way forwards.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][hr][/hr][p][/p][p][/p][p]The base now has all buildings unlocked by default and is further streamlined![/p][p]Visuals have been improved and performance is greatly enhanced on most menus.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][hr][/hr][p][/p][p][/p][p]The main menu has seen many optimizations and also ingame we did a large pass on UI, to reduce spikes on low end from Interface updates. Since the game is already very optimized in most areas we are now going in very specialized areas. [/p][p][/p][p]As fun example; with a special shader, we encoded all these ability UI elements into just 2 materials:[/p][p]5! different charges images, No Charges Overlay, Cooldown Bar, Cooldown Ready effect, Cooldown Started effect, Cooldown Overlay, Duration Bar, Stacks Display, Hover Overlay, Click Overlay[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]All of this is just in one shader. By abusing the RGB color values as 'sliders' for the effects we completely avoid having to set any expensive images or shader parameters. Previously even animating one of these effects would cause a expensive ui canvas re-build. The only thing not causing a re-build of the UI is changing a color, so we use that. If you have 40 of such actions on screen in 4P co-op, this could previously cause quite some drain on a low end machine in the late-game. [/p][p]Networking also has seen varied optimizations across the board.[/p][p][/p][hr][/hr][p][/p][p][/p][p]You can now clear keybindings in the settings.[/p][p]Additionally the game now checks for duplicate bindings and blocks them correctly[/p][p]This however now creates a inconvenience when switching weapons, as weapon switch and scroll is double-bound, we are seeing if we can add a further improvement. For now, we added buttons to switch weapons.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][hr][/hr][p][/p][p][/p][p]Tons of general fixes based on your feedback! U17 had a large focus on Fixing bugs.[/p][p]This update had a large focus on fixes, so we have a large list of things that have been resolved, and we'll continue on this path to get things really smooth. [/p][p] [/p][p] [/p][p][/p][hr][/hr][p][/p][p][/p][p]Next up we are getting Engineer ready, more fixes and refinements as usual and the alternative environment for Arctic Base is also in the works. We'll keep the short update cycle from now on.[/p][p]Please report any issues you encounter with Update 17 on Steam or Discord.[/p][p]Have fun![/p]

• [p]Team FFG[/p]

[p]Great news, everyone! The Update 17 Test Branch is officially public and ready
for testing! This is your critical opportunity to try out some major
improvements—most notably the new Steam P2P Networking—before the full U17
launch in just a few days.

[/p][h2]🚧How to Access Test Branch[/h2][p]
[/p]

• [p]Right-click the game in your Steam Library.[/p]
• [p]Select "Properties..."[/p]
• [p]Navigate to the "Betas" tab.[/p]
• [p]Select the "update17-test" (or similar option) from the dropdown menu.[/p]

[p]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[/p][h2]Focus: Steam P2P Networking[/h2][p]
After many player requests, we are testing a new Steam Peer 2 Peer (P2P) networking system to compare it against the current server-based solution, which includes improved prediction logic.

We have been seeing good results internally, but now we need your real-world data.

We are especially eager to get feedback from players who have historically had
issues with disconnects or connection stability on the dedicated server
system. Please let us know how the P2P based networking works for you!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[/p][h2]Also Available for Testing:[/h2][h3]
Attachments V3 & Synergy Items: [/h3][p]Give the new Attachment system a thorough test run and report back on functionality and balancing. Attachments Version 3 does a major shake-up on the upgrade system, but it's hard to explain, it's best to try it yourself![/p][p][/p][h3]Streamlined Menu Progression[/h3][p]The buildings are now unlocked from the start and things have been made easier to understand, check it out![/p][p] [/p][h3]U17 is coming soon![/h3][p]
Full Update 17 is only days away, so we need your help now!

Please focus your feedback on two key areas: Networking stability
(especially for P2P) and general Balancing (including the newAttachments V3).[/p][p][/p][p]See you soon![/p]