SYNTHETIK 2 News

[h2]General[/h2]
- Pickups no longer need a button press
- Overheat now properly applies a burning effect and deals damage
- Improved Handgun Selection UI
- Improved Shop UI
- Removed Explosive run shake

[h2]Fixes[/h2]
- Big - Fixed Play button "Game" issue
- Big - Fixed the main power scaling issue
- Big - Fixed strange weapon damage scaling (? - Let us know how damage feels now..)
- Fixed extra shot firing the entire magazine
- Varied fixes for beam weapons
- Fixed variants reapplying
- Varied other fixes and action fixes

[h2]Weapons[/h2]
- Due to the damage scaling fix, damage might need some further tweak in the later game
- Tweaked and fixed varied attachments
- Increased weapon perk amount cap to 6
- Nailgun damage 1.25 > 1.35
- ZB-26 reduced magazine to 20
- S90 heat reduced 0.8 > 0.7
- Nemesis damage 8x > 9x
- X1200 damage and ammo nerfed, was very overtuned but keeps similar dmg for higher heat
- X1500 damage increased
- X500 recoil increased, movement accuracy is now normal, heat 1 > 1.2x
- CR18 has increased recoil reset after stopping
- P20 dual now has same magsize as P20, recoil increased
- A700 increased heat 15%
- Acid pistol base damage reduced (acid stays the same) recoil increased
- Fixed varied weapons having 'dead' magazine attachments
- Added divine sound & feedback for divine variants

[h2]Added missing ammo types:[/h2]
- Shock GL - Impact
- Thundercat - Ball Seeker
- Recoilless Rifle - Now missile compatible
- Acid Pistol - Eroder

[h2]UniversEdit[/h2]
- Added entries to Armory patchnotes that were forgotten
- Reduced size of Path explaination block
- Updated categories in mod browser

[h2]Known issues:[/h2]
- Action which delete themselves instantly do not execute certain effects?





For our next priorities, first we plan a small spring cleaning in the project, and then we continue with a class overhaul before continuing with the enemy update. In the following document are some proposed changes to classes outlined, and you have the chance to write your own suggestions here!

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[h2]Your Class Feedback / Class Changes preview:[/h2]

You have to copy and paste the link manually as Steam blocks it otherwise!
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1O8PAcGejztzkpoXc-nNK_5oW3r6wVNMFuyKBCZLgBeI/edit?usp=sharing


Have fun! - FFG

Hey everyone!
We know its been longer than anticipated, but this update is probably the biggest we've ever done and more like an entire expansion (although a bit rougher), only rivalled by Legion Rising.

Focus on this update was to bring weapons on a new level and to a state where we can be happy about that aspect of the game. After armory, we plan on doing upgrades to the other 2 big elements, enemies and classes. Here is what's new!:


[h2]Key Features:[/h2]
[h3]
New Weapon Tech Perk System
New Camera Attachment Total Overhaul
Unique Weapon Perks for every looted weapon
Switchable Ammo Types Improved game duration, maps & pacing
Improved impacts & graphics New Menu designs
And much more
[/h3]




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[h2]New REDGUARD Weapons:[/h2]


[h3]Rayon Elite LW/7[/h3]
Laser SMG



[h3]EVO XS[/h3]
SMG



[h3]Honorary Dominator[/h3]
Shotgun



[h3]PPQ-H[/h3]
Handgun



----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[h2]New RAIDER Weapons:[/h2]


[h3]'Spike' Fireball Cannon[/h3]
Sprayer



[h3]'Leviathan' Heavy Harpoon[/h3]
One-shot weapon



[h3]Stoner Carbine[/h3]
Assault Rifle Carbine



[h3]Two-Z[/h3]
Dual-wielded SMGs



[h3]Shooty[/h3]
Full-auto handgun



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[h2]New SAT POLICE Weapons:[/h2]


[h3]Super 90[/h3]
Shotgun with Strobe light



[h3]Shock Grenade Launcher[/h3]
Electric Weapon (Remodel)



[h3]P20 Competition Dual[/h3]
Dual-wielded pistols



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[h2]New MACHINE MILITARY Weapons:[/h2]


[h3]ML-10 Recoilless Rifle[/h3]
Explosive launcher



[h3]R2000H Anti-Material[/h3]
Heavy anti-material rifle



[h3]X1500 Ion Rail[/h3]
Experimental Ion Railgun



[h3]X1200 Particle Obliterator[/h3]
Explosive Ion weapon



[h3]X500 Handgun[/h3]
2 Shot Ion handgun



[h3]CR-18[/h3]
Burst Handgun



----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[h2]New RESISTANCE Weapons:[/h2]


[h3]HS-50[/h3]
Recon Start (Remodel)



[h3]FA-7 Acid Pistol[/h3]
Damage-over-time handgun







[h2]New Weapon Menu[/h2]



- The weapon menu has been completely remade!
- Improved stats and perk displays
- Attachments now show their full name
- New ammo range damage falloff graph
- New tooltip for ammo types with details
- New tooltip for ammo/weapon technology
The stat side will see some more work but its already an big step forward!

[h2]New HD Weapon Images[/h2]
- All S2 weapon images in the menu use new HD versions!


[h2]120 New Weapon Technology Perks[/h2]



- Weapon perks system has been completely overhauled and extremely expanded!
- How it works: Weapons generally have 3 perk slots
- In most cases, 2 of these are filled with a random Tech Perk based on the weapon's technology
- Each technology has a different pool of perks. A Laser weapon will get laser perks.
- Perks are unlocked by dealing damage as before
- Earlier levels are now unlocked faster

Now when you pick up a weapon, you can compare and make informed considerations about which weapons to go for. You will notice that picking and inspecting a weapon will have a very new feeling and depth to it.

[h2]New Conversions[/h2]
- Technologies can also have rare 'conversion' perks
- These can add an additional twist to the gun!





[h2]New Unique Weapon Perks[/h2]
- All non starter weapons now have at least one unique weapon perk
- In the above example, the rifled third barrel is a Honorary dominator unique perk
- Unique perks are always on the weapon and always at the same slot
- In some cases they are unlocked early, in most they are unlocked as third option.

The unique weapon perks often come at the end of the leveling, so you can 'discover' a weapon by fully committing to it. You'll see something new that you wouldn't otherwise by just casually picking up the gun and then putting it away again. For weapons where it is key to the identity, the perks is usually at the first levelup.

[h2]New Weapon Variants[/h2]

- 15 New weapon variants have been added
- Weapon variants now have their new floppy disc images
- The floppy discs represent the user manual
- Varied existing variants have been reworked





[h2]Huge Attachment Update[/h2]


- Tons of attachments have been added, for over 80 total!
- Most existing attachments have been reworked or improved
- Let us know which attachments you do and do not like and which should be changed.
- Attachment costs have been reduced slightly, the last attachment costs more
- Weapon Rarity also affects the cost less than before
- Attachments now rarely use uncommon or epic rarities for consistency
- Legendary and Divine attachments have been added




[h2]New Switchable Ammo Types[/h2]
- Weapons can also now have multiple ammo types
- All ammo types have tooltips
- You can get a new type either through the 'Ammo Switch' attachment, or from the Tinkerer shop
- Ammo types can be switched in the menu or while playing
- Each weapon type has at least one alternative type, the common types have multiple
- Some ammo types can offer drastical changes, most offer a small twist in effectiveness.

Ammo types are intended as a slightly uncommon element of which you keep discovering types over time. They are not essential to play, but offer a nice layer of mystery, discovery and depth.

[h2]Other Weapon changes[/h2]
- Weapon experience required has been reduced especially for the first level
- Pistols can now gain variants through perks
- Explosions can now critically strike with critical strike chance
- You can now eject the weapon when the spare ammo is empty
- Tons of fixes regarding action saving, save and load, weapon swapping and level changes
- Many weapons have been tweaked

[h2]New Legendary & Divine Weapon Variants, Attachments[/h2]
- Weapons can also now have Ultra and Divine variants
- These are super rare and heavily boost stats!





[h2]New Camera[/h2]
- The camera is now a bit more zoomed out
- The camera allows scrolling out further outwards
- The camera has a more shallow FOV, meaning it has less perspective
- This makes the screen estate much more consistent.




[h2]Improved Player Collisions[/h2]
- It should now be harder to get stuck or get blocked on ramps

[h2]Improved Maps and Game Length[/h2]
- The game was stretched out way too long, we trimmed varied maps
- Many map improvements have been done

[h2]Increased Ranges[/h2]
- Ammo ranges have been increased around 20%
- Keep in mind that the zoom and camera panning distance has also increased.

In General ranges are increased but shorter range weapons will still not be able to shoot offscreen although more range upgrades now exist also. Long range weapons can shoot around screen border. Since enemies are tied to these ranges, we are touching these very slowly at a time

[h2]New Menu Design[/h2]



- Still work in progress, but most menus have gotten a visual upgrade
- Varied elements also have gotten extra animations
- This was done for most menus and will be further improved over time


[h2]Many UI improvements across the board[/h2]
- Most of the elements in the game have been touched, at best check it out for yourself!
- Improved weapon levelup, item and weapon pickup popups
- Improved the enemy healthbars to show ranks better and be more readable
- More work needs to be done but this is an important step.


[h2]Improved Feedback[/h2]
- Some parts of the UI have gotten new animations, especially the weapon frame
- Enemy hitflash has been made snappier
- Enemy healthbar now shakes on hits for better feedback
- New systems have been setup for better feedback on actions:
-- New muzzle glow effects
-- New laser pointer effects
-- New character particle effects
- New sound system for object collisions (work in progress)





[h2]New Status Effects[/h2]


- You will start seeing more status effects with proper sounds, VFX and buff icons
- This is an important step for the core gameplay ruleset but more work will be done there

[h2]New Ground Loot UI[/h2]
- You can now see items and weapons with icon and name on the ground

[h2]New Credits menu[/h2]
- You can now see the credits in the Universe Tab menu




[h2]New Tinkerer Shop Upgrades[/h2]
- Weapon Mastercraft
- Ammo Fitting
- Upgrade Kit
- Divine Ammunition Total conversion
- Path of the Weaponsmith

[h2]Shop Tweaks[/h2]
Weapon shop costs:
- Epic: 1500 > 1200
- Legendary: 2500 > 2000



[h2]Enemy Tweaks[/h2]
- We focus more on enemies in the next 2 coming updates
- (Rank bonuses are added on top of each other)
- Rank 1 enemies health unchanged from +30% +500
- Rank 2 enemies health from +125%+500 to +30%+1000
- Rank 3 enemies health from +300%+500 to +150%
- Rank 3 enemies max shield from 2000 to 4000
- Rank 2 and 3 enemy magsize, firerate scaling reduced

- Escalation 3 enemy damage +10%
- Changed enemy spawning to be more specific to floors
- This means less low level enemies spawn in the later levels
- Shotgunners movement speed reduced (also their Rank ones are much weaker)
- Riotshield has reduced health
- Riotshield speed reduced
- Remade arena master taser to shoot straight instead of auto lock-on
- Increased environment prop armor values to increase bounce chances
- Alarm wheel does not cancel the spawn if sight is interrupted




[h2]New Sharper Image[/h2]
- Increased sharpness of the entire game visuals noticeably!
- Increased sharpness of TAA noticeably

[h2]New Color Grading[/h2]
- Added subtle color grading for better colors and contrast




[h2]New 'Screenshot' Setting[/h2]
- Added expensive setting for post processing, which has Screen Space Global Illumination
- Inefficient and not recommended for gameplay for most people but looks good
- Adds more realistic fake ray tracing like shadowing




[h2]New HBAO[/h2]
- Ultra and Screenshot setting have Horizon Based Ambient Occlusion now enabled
- Improves shadowing and definition of assets in the environment

[h2]New Shadow Cascade Quality[/h2]
- You can now have noticeably sharper shadows by using the shadow cascades on 'Normal'
- The previous setting is equivalent to 'Low'
- Make sure to set it back to low if you don't want a small decrease in performance




[h2]New Enemy Glow & Blob shadows[/h2]
- Enemies/Player now have a glow effect similar to S1, making them easier to see in the environment
- Enemies/Player now use blob/drop shadows, making them more grounded in the environment




[h2]More Performance Improvements[/h2]
- More improvements have been done, especially Low settings have been trimmed GPU wise
- Main menu performance has been improved

[h2]Better Loading Times[/h2]
- Loading times have been reduced by around 30%





[h2]New Entity Spawning[/h2]
- You can now finally also spawn gameentities with a button in the F3 menu

[h2]New Conditions[/h2]
- Check for weapon category (SMG, LMG, Faction ..)
- Check for weapon technology type
- Check for current ammo of magazine (last shot..)
- Check for current ammo of magazine percentage
- Allow weapon selling

[h2]New Results / Effects[/h2]
- Replace ammo type
- Add ammo type
- Change weapon rarity, change actionrarity
- Add attachment to character/weapon (muzzle glow, laser etc)
- Added option for random weapon perks and tech based perks in weapon config

[h2]New Stats[/h2]
- Pellet count
- Damage Falloff Distance

[h2]New Ammo Stats[/h2]
- Alert range
- Backside hits
- Ammo gained

[h2]New Projectile Editor[/h2]
- You can now create custom Projectiles
- Homing, Curving, Grenade, Cursor target etc

[h2]Config Cleanups[/h2]
- Weapon configuration is much easier to navigate
- Game Entity is much simpler to navigate and understand
- Fixed shoot ammo only shooting one projectile from ammo and not using range properties
- Status effects, Ammo and Explosions had configs cleaned up and are ready to be used!

[h2]Known Issues[/h2]
- For some people the depot dosnt update changes until restart
- Editor info tooltips are often not displaying as they should




Note:
- We were testing the new environment on Test branch but feel its not ready yet for this update


[h2]General Known Issues[/h2]
- Pickups sometimes lack sounds
- Sometimes you can switch ammo types without ejection
- In some hotkey constellations, the display shows a black icon
- The attachment menu is still showing over the weapon stats
- Burst weapons gain too much heat

[h2]Bugs[/h2]
- This patch has been longer on Test branch than all others and a ton of things have been fixed, overall this should be the best state yet, but that does not mean there are not a good bunch of new bugs which slipped through. Remember to post in the respective channels!





Alright, this is it!
Focus for next time will be a good iteration over the classes and a big enemy update.
Since this update took longer but also had a lot more things than anticipated, we will likely try do a shorter update where we polish up the classes to a good state and then do the big enemy update, while doing a class progression update afterwards, not to forget multiplayer of course.

We'll likely do a roadmap update or another dev post in the near future.

Let us know what you think!
We hope you enjoy!

- Team FFG

Hey everyone!
A small update about the current development.
We are back from the holidays and steady at work on the 'Armory' Update as mentioned in Update 3.
Some juicy stuff has already been done. Some spoilers below.

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Development Priorities:
We are gradually working off the common points of complaint and things are going really well forwards so far. Our very powerful new framework is getting smoother and better by the day and we can now properly take the time and go through all parts of the game and polish and fix up everything, now that things are running and mostly stable. We are feeling pretty optimistic about the next months and we think you are going to be surprised.

For our plan to make Synthetik 2 top notch, we are devising 3 essential updates which are jam packed with improvements and focussed but not exclusively around the 3 main elements of the game, Classes, Combat and Enemies (and coop):

[h3]1. Armory - The Big Weapon/Combat Update[/h3]
- New weapons and handguns
- Ammo types, Images
- More than 2x the attachments of S1
- Many new Weapon and Technology perks
- UI improvements, Weapon menu rework
- Big Weapon pass
- Most needed enemy improvements
- Impact sounds, effects, explosions
- Camera? Ranges?
- Level improvements
- Big secret new extra (its very red)
- ...and much more.

[h3]2. Resistance- The Big Class & Progression Update[/h3]
- These will polish and rework the specs and classes as needed
- Better class progression and switchable ability slots.
- Rogue (Raider, Assassin ..) class.
- ...More infos after Armory.

[h3]3. Assault/Spearhead - The Big Enemy & Gameplay Update[/h3]
- Big pass on enemies, bosses, enemy abilities, AI and everything
- Terror level, Headhunters, loop? Military faction?
- All sorts of core gameplay related things
- ...More info after Resistance.


Plan:
Resistance and Spearhead might switch, the third is either way planned to be the coop update as well.
Which update you think needs to happen first? Resistance or Spearhead?

Some attachment spoilers from Armory:










We also conclude that both Resistance and spearhead need more like 6 weeks each instead of 4 to not cut them too short so it will not amount entirely to 1 per month but maybe we can do some mid-patch updates? We investigae what is best. Armory is planned to go on steam beta branch in the next week or so and arrive in the first week of February. Keep in mind that plans are just plans and things always change a bit.

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Surveys! Please voice your opinion!
We have some important surveys here, they take 5-10 minutes but it is worth doing them and your voice will definitely matter here. Don't miss out! Doing only one is perfectly fine of course.


[h2]S2 SURVEY[/h2]
https://forms.gle/rFcNK5bg9DVU6gLd7


[h2]S2 WEAPON SURVEY[/h2]
https://forms.gle/tdxhrU37a8iPwMCe9

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Ok thats it! I hope this gives you a better overview of what is going on and what is planned.

Small bonus armory spoiler at the end:



Best - Team FFG

Hey everyone!
We know its only been 2 weeks since the last one but we've got another update before the Holidays!
As follow-up to the BOOSTER update, the BOOST PLUS update is continuing on the improvements around items and abilities but more of this work will need to be finalised in the near future.
Here is what is new:



[h3]ACTIVE POWER SLOTS![/h3]
- NEW Active Power Slots
- Items which have the trigger "On class ability use" can now be toggled to use a power slot
- In the Upgrade menu "U" you can click the power slot button to activate at no cost
- You have 2 potential power slots



- This will allow manually activating the item with a hotkey
- It also increases the Effect Power of the item, the first slot by 30%, the second slot by 15%
- By default, your first 2 items will automatically have the power slots enabled

Originally posted by Shrike

Power slots are an ideal solution for all the issues with random active items, they allow you to have items on hotkeys but within a limited number, so you can never have 10 hotkeys at the same time, nor do you have to scramble with a fixed slot that is incompatible with other items. The power boost adds another layer of choice and could be extended to other items as well potentially. With this system, a player can also keep his items on reactive, or the amount of slots could be scaled up or down, or turned off by default (per example on Consoles) and the System shows even more potential for other upgrades.

[h3]CURSED ITEMS[/h3]
- NEW Cursed Item Chest
- NEW Item - Incubus
- NEW Item - Core of daring
- NEW Item - Bloodrite
- NEW Zir Shrine Event: Feat of Strength
- NEW Zir Shrine Event: Steal Relic

Originally posted by Shrike

You can now find cursed items in special chests, or from a new Zir shrine event, they generally offer increased rewards or power but at a difficulty cost

- NEW Item - Ghost Spawner
- NEW Item - Twin Grenade

Some items have been tweaked or their activation changed in favor of power slots.
There is definitely more potential in the new system than is in use right now, we have some ideas
already how to make even more use of power slots in the near future.

[h3]ITEMS[/h3]
- Item shops and rarity of items in shops have been increased for better choices
- Now with crazy item upgrades and power slots, we are also testing having a cap of 6 items
- This allows making more impactful choices and loadouts and reduces information overload

Originally posted by Shrike

This may sound like a negative at first but we think this does improves the quality of the gameplay and people who tested the beta seem to agree. Right now the items do not feel a lot like a loadout with an idea or strategy behind, but more like a random assortment of things like you would see in a passive upgrade driven game. Reducing the amount lets you keep track of what is going on and plan an actual loadout and strategy. In Synthetik 1 we had 8 items, now we have 8 items and 3-4 abilities, with the change this be closer to S1 (10 vs 8). Same as with the map sizes, bigger did not turn out to be better.

With upgrades being a lot deeper now and the power slots, I think this is a good change towards more clarity and impactful choices, and stray away from "just collect things until full" - Shrike

[h3]COMPOSITOR[/h3]
- We are slowly phasing out or reworking the current compositor upgrades
- This is due to the current system not making much sense in the way it is used technically
- The cool ones will either stay or become perks for terminals you can obtain
- NEW - All abilities now can use the same upgrades as the items
- Right now, the composites are staying as rare upgrades while more work is being done
- The idea is to have later rare composites based on slot or technology type of the item/ability

- Both item & ability upgrade types now go up incrementally in cost
- initially they should have a cap of 4 just like attachments, but we try this instead first
- We still want to allow rare 6-8 upgrade god-items, but at 600 cost it was clearly game-breaking
- Overall, the new upgrade system, while not fully complete yet, does show a lot of power already!

[h3]TERMINALS[/h3]
- Varied new terminal events
- Reworked varied events to be more interesting
- 2 shops per map now appear more often
- Item and weapon shops offer more rare goods
- Weapon shops and gambling shrines are more rare
- Item shops more common

Overall terminals are starting to get in good shape and already offer a good amount of varied choices and formats now. Some icons also have been replaced.

[h3]RARITIES:[/h3]
- Rarities had an issue fixed and now should behave as intended
- This means in some shops the epic and legendary things are now as rare as they should

The general rarity weighting looks/should look like this:
50% - Common
30% - Uncommon
15% - Epic
5% - Legendary

In some loot/shops this was already the case more or less, but in some this will make a noticeable difference, so balancing is shaken up and we will gather feedback on this topic.
Weapon/Item shops notably drop higher rarity level loot however



[h3]LEVEL IMPROVEMENTS:[/h3]
- Silo and Training got some design changes and improvements.
- Some overly big and convoluted maps got more compact
- Varied map improvements in terms of cover placement, collisions and spawn camping
- Still an ongoing process, post your gripes in the level-issues channel on discord!

Originally posted by Shrike

We are trying to keep sizes more consistent throughout the game and reduce
on overly huge maps, as they do not make for great gameplay, have a lot of backtracking,
confusion and make the balancing of item/weapon drops very hard.
We will continue with some adjustments to the Oilrig and Mainboard levels

- Enemies AI shoots less unneccessary on cover positions
- Arena Masters have more health
- Armored defender armor increased
- Bosses are now invulnerable in cutscenes
- Reduced Silo Jet Boss health by 15%
- Increased Sawblade Boss health by 15%
- K9s have a different attack sound
- Riotshield enemies have a much more generous backside attack area
- Enemy shotgunners damage reduced a bit



[h3]UNLOCKS:[/h3]
- Each class now has one pistol costing only 75 Data (down from 150)
- Each class now has one spec costing 2 unlock tokens,
- Exp requirement for level 5 reduced (15000>10000)

This makes you unlock some things fast in short playtime but doesn't let you unlock everything easily. Some new handguns are planned for the Armory update!

[h3]OTHER:[/h3]
- Amount of upgrade parts grants increased when above 350 parts
- Precision Strike damage doubled
- Reduced Facemelter damage
- Chrono charge increased volume
- Unstable chrono charge deals more damage
- Varied specs had wrongly setup ability categories fixed
- Grenadier Multi Talent duration 1>1.5s
- Launchers now eject shells on reload
- Improved chat colors
- Changed Cheat menu to not cause a massive lag at the start, work in progress
- Orbital Authority and Power kick have improved shake
- Orbital Authority now deals more damage, executes targets if below 35%
- Buffed Riotguard Judge lifesteal
- Weapon swap no longer needs to complete the fire timer of the last shot
- Facemelter now dosn't trigger if an enemy is within 5m range
- Twice is the charm and double misfire now increase extra shot amount and work
- Updated class menu a bit to be more clean and use class colors
- Due to being super cursed, prismatic chain is being removed until reworked
- Spike strip now is stronger, lasts 90 seconds
- K9 item secret
- Varied UI improvements
- Varied unlisted changes which got forgot

[h3]FIXES:[/h3]
- Tons of things that were reported have been fixed
- If you see any action or other related things which do not work as intended,
please report them in the discord channel for action bugs (or Steam if must)
and they will be fixed.



[h3]SOUNDS[/h3]
- Many feedback sounds and player weapon sounds are now in 2D instead of 3D
- This makes them have the proper volume they should and appear closer to you
- Varied sound improvements
- Known issue: Some sounds are overblown

[h3]PERFORMANCE:[/h3]
- Some smaller improvements, mostly for low settings
- Remember to update your drivers if you haven't - this may definitely help!



- NEW - Merge Depot
- You can now merge depots you got from other people into your own
- This will also allow us to add mod content much easier to the game if wanted

- Weapon burst now works at 0
- Particles can now be scaled
- Added a couple more tooltips

[h3]ATTENTION MODDERS:[/h3]
- IMPORTANT! Make sure your class abilities have the category "Action Archetype: Any" category
If you want your abilities to use the orange upgrades. This means they can use any upgrade.
It is also recommended for all items or class abilities to have the new technology category set for the future. We always try to be as little disruptive to mods as possible but with adding new things this is not always possible.



[h3]PRIORITIES:[/h3]
The biggest priorities for the near future:
- Wrapping up the action system and making upgrades and scaling work fully in all regards
- The "Armory" Update with focus on everything all around weapons
- Improving map flow, variation and decreasing some sizes
- There are always the typical UI, UX, Bug, Performance, Sound
and general improvements and multiplayer of course.
Don't forget out roadmap on synthetikuniverse.com.



Here is a very rough overview of our current intentions.
Alright, that's it! We hope you enjoy and wish you merry holidays!

Have fun! - Team FFG

Hey everyone!
The new update is live, this time with a good mix of changes and improvements all around.
The core systems are getting close to completion, many of the update components now work but it still needs a little more. The next update "Armory" will focus all around weapons and still estimated this December if all goes well.


[h3]ENVIRONMENTS[/h3]
- New levels for Power Plant (Electro floor), including biological laboratory
- New variations for rooms and spaces at existing levels
- Visual improvements for environment objects

[h3]ONGOING[/h3]
- Improved cover in many areas for more cover gameplay
- Improved enemy enounter placements in varied areas
- Improved visibility in varied areas
- Fixed varied spawn-camping areas
This is an ongoing process, remember to post
us screenshots of areas which are sub-optimal!






[h3]GLOBAL CHAT[/h3]
- The first iteration of the Global chat is live!
- Right now its only in the main menu, we will add it to the other places soon.
- The new global chat has an improved featureset like support for channels,
commands and a better ban system but right now its only the start.

[h3]CHESTS[/h3]
- NEW: Varied Chests and chest effects

[h3]GENERAL[/h3]
- NEW: Mayhem mode - Alternative gameplay modifier
- Fixed a big issue introduced last patch that caused random weakpoints and strange damage
- This affected both player and enemies
- Increased credits from recycling (300 up to 1200 based on rarity)
- Explosive (and other types) barrels system improved - be careful, they are really explosive now!
- Summons now spawn rotated in player direction
- Cursed chests now demand 75 kills, fixed curse granting better shield delay

[h3]INSTAKILL PROTECTION[/h3]
- There is now a protection against cheap deaths, it triggers if dropping below 30% health
- This will be further refined over time. Let us know how this new one works out for you.



A good chunk of items were added to spice up the pool. Loot should feel more varied now but of course more is to come



[h3]- New Item: Brawndo[/h3]
The classic Brawndo as you know it

[h3]- New Item: Precision Strike[/h3]
A Mortar on command

[h3]- New Item: Mortar Barrage[/h3]
Killstreak already?

[h3]- New Item: Heat Sink[/h3]
Fueling the flames

[h3]- New Item: Heat Spreader[/h3]
Powerful fire aura

[h3]- New Item: Fire Prism[/h3]
Another returning S1 item

[h3]- New Item: Twin Link[/h3]
Double the firepower

[h3]- New Item: Shield Discombulator[/h3]
Some more defensive options

[h3]- New Item: Fusion Mines[/h3]
Small and annoying

[h3]- New Item: Stun Mines[/h3]
We know your favourite items are mines

[h3]- New Item: Spike Strip[/h3]
A Police classic

[h3]- New Item: PF42 Sticky Bomb[/h3]
More Big Explosions

[h3]- New Item: Dog Whistle[/h3]
Time for a robo treat





[h3]ICON UPDATE[/h3]
- 150 Icons got a HD upgrade, from 100x100 to 256x256 size, greatly increasing quality
- Many new icons have been added in the editor, some are already in use within weapon perks



Many improvements are done under the hood to make the very deep new upgrade system work optimally but it will need one or two more patches to be perfectly rounded. Per example, before all class abilities use charges by default to make upgrades possible which grant charges, but this will not be necessary anymore. This patch however marks a huge step towards the completion and will enable the majority of desired features.



[h3]UPGRADE RELATED IMPROVEMENTS[/h3]
- Tooltips now show Item/Ability upgrades after bought
- Multi-Casting is now implemented
- Double, Triple, Quad cast is now implemented
- Damage effects now scale with effect power
- Summons now scale with effect power



- Item / Ability power now shows in the tooltip
- Cooldown reduction now shows in the tooltip
- Charges recharge time now shows in the tooltip
- Varied other improvements to action upgrade effects




[h3]PANDORAS BOX[/h3]
- Total overhaul, now should work well, opening a ton of new possibilities!
- Most Effects now work and it can be used multiple times for crazy item combos.
- This should mark a big change towards the run progression of the game
- Some things do not fully work yet, most notably items which spawn things which spawn things
- More improvements coming soon, getting all these things working is a priority right now




[h3]COMPOSITOR[/h3]
- First step in improving the compositor
- Pass on mobility upgrades
- Varied fixes, changes and improvements
- Class abilities now show their type (Class mobility, Core Ability, Utility Ability, Spec Ability)
- More work on improving the compositor upcoming

[h3]SHOPS[/h3]
- New Tinkerer Terminal upgrade: Power Printing
- Items rearrange themselves now after selling in the inventory bars
- Shops now properly update after selling
- Action Upgrade shops now technically allow multiple choices (item upgrade shop will later get it)



[h3]ENEMIES[/h3]
[h3]- NEW: Propaganda Aura Turret
- NEW: Shock Mortar Turret
- NEW: Alarm Turret
- NEW: Weapon Locker Turret[/h3]
These are in testing, we are looking for your feedback

- Fixed the slow backwards rotating move some enemies did when attacked
- Fixed an behaviour where recruits were waiting for 2-4 seconds doing nothing and just staring
- A pass on AI, patrolling and movement is still upcoming
- Fixed an issue where everything had random weakpoints
- Fixed an issue from last update where enemy projectile speed was faster than it should
- Fixed an issue where enemies used a wrong attack range, we will have to re-tune some things
- Riotguards rear-size dead zone increased 130° > 200°
- Reduced tier 1 enemies in second floor
- Nerfed Arena sniper and last defender damage

- NEW: automated level cleaning system:
- several tiny robo-cleaners now are keeping all floors clean after any kind of hard battles!





A Bigger pass all around weapons is planned for the next update

[h3]GENERAL[/h3]
- Until the december update rework, all weapons will now have 1 tech perk (up from 0-1)
- Tech perks are default unlocked right now, this will be changed then
- Increased damage amount required for perk unlocks
- Added missing tooltips to starter handgun perks
- Added notifier for upgrades

[h3]TWEAKS[/h3]
- Patrol revolver damage 2.2 > 2, Recoil reset increment 15>20, Recoil reduced 20%
- Kago Tear gas works again
- Tokko Fusion recoil reduced
- Shock Lightning launcher AOE improved
- Industrial Breaching Cutter heat speed reduced
- X1000 Heavy rifle accuracy and ejection speed reduced
- P20 improved firing sound

[h3]ATTACHMENTS[/h3]
- New Attachment: Ignition Core (idea by IGNITRO)
- Barebones allocator ammo regen 1 > 3
- Reworked Stock Pouch
- Fixed varied attachment issues



[h3]MENUS[/h3]
- NEW: Reworked Class Menu
- NEW: Classes are now automatically created and no longer need a save slot creation process
- NEW: You can now also preview specs that you do not own
- The class menu now is much faster, requiring half or less than half the clicks to switch a class
- Note: Additional class slots had to be deleted, your first class slot is taken
- Keep in mind that this is work in progress and will be further improved
- Improved End screen, now shows additional weapon info such as attachments

[h3]HUD[/h3]
- Improved ammo counter at character
- Now shows at - Removed tooltip popups from all Items

[h3] MOD BROWSER[/h3]
- Downloaded mods are now default enabled
- Added filters to the Mod Browser
- Added Mod Description (Duh) to the Mod inspector



Big shout-out to all the great mods so far! What people have been making is very impressive.
Remember to try them out - Its just a couple clicks away, installs automatically, no work required!
You can join the modding discussions on Discord as well.



There will be more class changes in the near future, but this should cover some of the biggest concerns and make some classes more fun

[h3]CHRONO TROOPER[/h3]
- Chrono Trooper Chrono Charge Cooldown 18>17s
- Chrono Trooper Chrono Charge now has 2 charges
- Chrono Trooper Chrono Charge Damage from 700>600
- Chrono Trooper Danger overdrive now refreshes shields
- Chrono Trooper Prismatic Chain duration increased, now works properly
- Chrono breacher Breaching Charges reworked - at best just try it out
- Chrono breacher Defensive Focus now grants 1 breaching charge on plating loss
- Shield Dome now grants 500 max shields and might give shields to summons
- Chrono Striker will get a closer look soon
- Varied fixes

[h3]RECON[/h3]
- Psy cloud grenade now also grants chance to not consume charges (given these are like cooldowns)
- Psyonic field now reduces firerate 10% per shot for 2 seconds, damage 150>125
- Psy Recon has a new focus perk
- Base Recon now has +25% shield regeneration
- Engine disabling shot now grants improved deviation for accurate shots
- Anti-Tank mine now holds 2 charges
- Varied fixes

[h3]GRENADIER[/h3]
- Base Grenadier slight rework due to explosive run being unbalanceable
- Explosive Run now consumes a grenade charge to explode
- HE Grenade now has 1>2 charges
- Explosive Run now has 10>7s cooldown
- This gives flexibility in grenade usage and you can have more mobility as damage is not tied to mobility cooldown, also the explosion could be made stronger. Let us know what you think, if people hate it we can revert the change, but it should be for the better

- Assault grenadier melee attack now has aoe targeting and effect
- Bundle grenade now also uses ground targeting for better control
- Fixed an issue where Reactive plating did not reduce max shield
(Reactive plating is not nerfed in terms of plating, we'll see how the shield reduction plays out)
- Varied fixes

[h3]RIOTGUARD[/h3]
- Base Riotguard Painkiller perk replaced with new perk: Manstopper
- Tear gas grenade now uses ground cursor target for better control
- Judge life-steal reduced by 2.5%
- Judge Orbital Authority now deals + 200 damage
- Judge Orbital Authority now deals double elite damage
- Judge Elite kill rewards now show a feedback panel

In general many non working perk elements have been fixed, but please let us know if you see something not working. Remember you can use CTRL when viewing the tooltip to see some (but not all) details



UniversEdit improvements are technical upgrades for the framework and the game.
As we use the same UniversEdit as you (yours is much faster even), you will get all the same benefits

[h3]NEW EFFECTS[/h3]
- Modify current action cooldown, this changes a running cooldown directly
- Set Charges Recharge Time To Cooldown Duration - used for charges upgrades, will see use soon

[h3]EMIT PARTICLE[/h3]
- It is now possible to emit particles from varied bone positions on the character
- This allows as example muzzle glowing effects, great for "next shot boost" and such effects

[h3]ICON UPDATE[/h3]
- Foreground and background icons now use one shared pool
- This granting tons of new visual icon design possibilities for actions
- Many new icons have been added, especially Nano, Scatter, Fire, Ion, Curse
- [!!] Warning for Modders: Sadly we had to reset the ActionIconBackgrounds
(the backgrounds behind the transparent icons) but you will see that it was worth it when trying it out

[h3]WEAPON AUDIO[/h3]
- You can now have 2 shot sounds and mix together their volumes and pitches
- Weapon shooting, Eject, Reload and Active reload now have pitch ranges
- Pitch now can go into negative to reverse a sound

[h3]CHEAT MENU[/h3]
- The debug menu is there to test your mods
Edit: It was not intended to show all our content, so it will be temporarily disabled until its fixed, sorry!

[h3]ANIMATIONS[/h3]
- New upper body animations which can be used for varied effects:
- Weapon Spin
- Weapon Slap
- Weapon Quick Reload
- Weapon Active Reload

[h3]NEW STATS[/h3]
- Reload Speed Stat (yes we see the irony here)
- Ejection Speed Stat
- Armor Piercing Stat

[h3]0-1 to 0-100[/h3]
- Most things like chances and percentages are now normalized to 0-100 range instead of 0-1 range
- Crit chance, dodge, no ammo cost, double shot, jamming, multi cast, health percentage etc
- Heat is not yet, but will be in the next days, tell us if you see something falling out of line

[h3]OTHER[/h3]
- Added many more tooltips to Editor stats and similar
- Note: If you use cooldown reduction, you usually also should add charge recharge speed
- Increased size of text fields for better writing (having notpad++ nearby still recommended)
- Removed some non relevant inputs from results
- The 8-Ball action is now set up with a proper category, making it easy to add new 8-ball quote sets

[h3]SPAWN ENTITY[/h3]
- Spawn Entity can now filter by category (per example spawn a random Tier 2 Police enemy)
- Spawn Entity can now spawn multiple at once (both ideal for wave spawning events)
- The same is enabled for Spawn Action
- Spawn Entity now supports giving extra stat overrides to the entity, ideal for summons (+2000 hp..)

[h3]@MODDERS[/h3]
- Mods will have to reapply their ActionIconBackgrounds but you have way more choices now
- Remember to check your weapons if they have ammo pickup not at 0 (@AnimeGirl)
- Remember most chances now use and will use 0-100, check out the new tooltips!



[h3]MUSIC[/h3]
- Added 1 new track to Police Academy level
- Added 1 new track to Missile Silo level
- Added 1 new track to Oilrig level

[h3]PERFORMANCE[/h3]
- Further AI performance improvements
- Audio performance improvements
- General CPU performance improvements

[h3]SETTINGS[/h3]
- Gamepad settings now properly save on exit
- Added individual hotkeys for weapon slots
- Settings now show which GPU is active

[h3]AUDIO[/h3]
- Changed many sounds to mono (as they should) - this reduces distortion on some
- Sound normalization is off, let us know if you think some sound has degraded so we can fix

[h3]FIXES[/h3]
- Fixed a ton of issues, too many to list
- Many attachments, upgrades, items, class actions ... now work as they should
- Please report us any effect you notice not working, remember you can check some things with CTRL

[h3]KNOWN ISSUES[/h3]
- Varied impact sounds are missing
- Attachments are missing their background images
- Alarm Drones don't trigger
- Multicast, Action critical etc Sounds are wrong
- Upgrades have no limits right now and can go too crazy
- Health-regeneration has an issue
- ?



Upcoming: It was planned that the Dec 14 was supposed to be the Weapon patch (and active item power slots), but since this one got a lot bigger than anticipated we have to see if we want to do it for the next week with more limited scope or have it around new year after the Christmas weeks, we'll keep you updated!

Pretty solid changes for the first month we would say ; )
As you can see, we are dedicated bring Synthetik 2 into its best form.
A bunch more work is to be done, but this Update already marks a big step towards that goal.

We will do a small fix patch ASAP tomorrow or so if needed.
We hope you enjoy! - Team FFG