SYNTHETIK 2 News

Hey everyone!
With the class update we wanted to bring back switchable abilities, but first and foremost add quality and polish to the classes and do some needed changes and reworks based on your feedback.

Keep in mind that the classes are not and not supposed to be perfect and final, the bulk work is done but there will be further refinements over time based on your feedback. Overall the classes are much more engaging, refined and have more identity and replay value. For the future we have Rogue, Assassin and Engineer also in the works but with 12 classes you'll have a lot to play right now.



[h3]- Overhaul of 12 classes, tons of huge changes!
- New Switchable ability slots
- New Eliminator class
- New Heavy Gunner
- New Rocketeer
- New Sniper
- Many level & graphical improvements
- New Stat upgrades
- New Items & Weapons
- Item & Attachment improvements
- Improved loot progression (Part 1)
- Huge under-the-hood & UniversEdit improvements
- Tons of fixes and improved audio
- Many other improvements[/h3]


Known issues:
- Sometimes kill and hit audio goes missing
- (!) Avoid reloading or switching weapons at level changes/teleporter
- Sometimes icons display wrong
- Looking into fixes ASAP






[h3]NEW Class - Eliminator[/h3]



The Eliminator is a new bounty hunting class with dual wielded handguns and powerful gadgets.
He does not want to get caught and can circles his victims with his distracting infiltration ability, while going for weakpoint kills to get credits rewards.

His switchable abilities offer powerful gadgets, like the dangerous room clearing eliminator drone, or the distractor laser cluster drones. He can also place a seth-up laser sentry turret in classic professional hitman fashion. He is not easy to play but offers some nice rewards.


[h3]NEW Class - Sniper[/h3]



The Sniper is finally back! With his target-laser and focus on weakpoint hits, he is not to be toyed with. He now deals area damage on headshots and has quite some new gadgets to try.
His LS-30 is a powerful starter weapon and looks equally bad-ass. He also has different mobility choices. More tweaks to sniper will arrive based on community feedback!



[h3]NEW Class - Heavy Gunner[/h3]
The Heavy gunner is back with a force!
Dishing out heavy sustained firepower and starting with a cylindrical magazine LMG,
the Heavy gunner is a force to be reckoned with!





The new Heavy gunner mostly follows the classic S1 Heavy Gunner. Simple but highly effective and with more madness than ever.




[h3]NEW Class - Rocketeer[/h3]
The Rocketeer has been completely remade and essentially returns the key S1 Demolisher elements but adds some new twists. With Seismic Resonator you can re-trigger previous explosions for powerful combos (even enemy ones!). Rocket boost and resonator allows catapulting out of danger and burning noses of near enemies.



The Rocketeer has heavy AOE damage potential but is not as durable as other Grenadier classes. Imagine a trick-jumping sniper with explosive launchers. More tuning is to come.




[h2]HUGE TOTAL CLASS OVERHAUL![/h2]

- Essentially everything is new!
- All classes got a ton of improvements and changes
- Varied new starter weapons have been added
- Just log in and check out everything with fresh eyes!
- You can skip the wall of text and just check it all out ingame.



[h3]Total Rework - Riotguard[/h3]



Riotguard got reworked and is now a aggressive shield bashing melee brawler, while the Judge has the more S1 / previous style shield dash and bulwark. The Riotshield can now be toggled on and off, he no longer has energy shields. With low cooldown close range attacks and stagger combos. Riotguard feels like a brawling game character almost and is much more fun now. Try it out!

Some more Riotguard changes are to be expected, especially the Perks will see work and maybe some more tweaks to the shield mechanic, but this is already a huge upgrade.



[h3]Improved - Guard Judge[/h3]



Guard Judge has been improved in all areas. His Heavy Shield Dash with Bulwark up is very powerful, and he can also now handcuff people by dashing into them without the shield. His Bulwark got reworked into Stabilized Bulwark, enabling a sort of "Pistolero Mode" where you have virtually no recoil for 3 seconds and can open a fight with well placed accurate shots. He also got greatly improved visual effects making it much more fun to play.



Some more things are planned for Judge for the future, adding a "Performance Review" feature, where police duties are reviewed, and you are up-ranked if you fulfill the acceptable ratio of causalities, property damage and accuracy. A New Judge revolver is also in the works.



[h3]Improved - Disruptor[/h3]



Disruptor recieved quite some improvements. He now has a stunning lightning punch which can be triggered in melee range. His mobility is now a protective shield, which aids allies and constructs. He can also punch his shock trophy for a powerful combo.The energy shields got removed to favor a more high stakes playstyle. He really excels in playing with cover and taking aggressively pot shots melee range with his punch attacks all around sight blockers and cover, but never wants to be caught open field.

With the lightning cluster, masterkey and the Cryo turret he has quite flexible specialization abiliites- Disruptor has a quite unique playstyle which might be more for acquired tastes but definitely brings something special to the table, like some sort of melee engineer. More work on his perks and tweaks onto the shield ability are planned.



[h3]Improved - Grenadier[/h3]



Assault Grenadier got removed and his features got merged into the base Grenadier.
Grenadier's kit worked well and mostly saw polish and new perks, improved vfx and more
Grenadier got improved VFX and new perks and should see a noticeable improvement.
Some more work on Grenadier perks is planned as well!



[h3]Reworked - Chrono Trooper[/h3]



Chrono Trooper recieved quite some big changes and has much more depth now. Varied timing based benefits make him all about split second decisions and execution. He now also starts with a capable fusion SMG. Chrono charge has varied interactions and his new temporal ammo perk gives him the boost to distinguish his role as a weapon based soldier / smg ambusher type.

The new "slow motion" ability also further gives him some unique time based power.
Some more tweaks about the details of his combos and perks in general are expected.



[h3]Reworked - Chrono Striker[/h3]



Chrono Striker got many improvements and now builds around telefragging, chaining abilities for powerful combos and in general has become some sort of mobility-based 'mage' class.
He now owns the freshly upgraded shield dome and has some nice other abilities.
Striker's hard reset bonus is on the watchlist for future changes.



[h3]Improved - Chrono Breacher[/h3]



Chrono breacher has seen varied upgrades, mostly varied S1 elements were brought back, but some new twists were added as well. You can now do stagger combos with blink, go with a stimulant or explosive build with the focus perks. Many polishing tweaks have been done. Blink now also grants a powerful "priority take-down" bonus if you teleport into multiple targets and more. Overall we are quite happy with the class, maybe some sounds could be further improved.



[h3]Reworked - Anti-Material Recon[/h3]



The Anti-Material recon got some bigger changes. He now has a distinct "take cover" ability, giving him durability and staying power to out-damage the opposition. He now plays a bit like "the manly sniper" who uses powerful ambushes at the start and then overwhelms with raw firepower while caring less about pinpoint precision.
He got 2 alternative core abilities, a HEAT and a HVAP piercing shot, and has some new gadgets as well to play with. A new focus was also put on piercing enemies, this is now rewarded with stacking benefits.


[h3]Removed - Psy Recon[/h3]
The Psy recon felt too different and it's execution was not great. There are some good elements we want to bring back, such as the psy field, or the shot, but overall we think his kit should rather be in the future assassin or be items. It is still possible to get the Psy recon back, it is just not enabled in the menu by default. Feel free to upgrade and make a mod out of it or just use it for yourself!

How to get it back:
- Open universEdit, (Create a depot if needed)
- Go to PlayerClassSpecialization on the left
- Copy the Psy Recon
- Give your new copy a new name (Add a 'New' Localization on top)
- Click "Specialization of the Following Class" > Search
- Search the Recon, and confirm
- Save the class
- It now will be back in the menus

Don't forget to fill in the class survey posted on discord and steam forums!






[h3]New Switchable ability slots[/h3]
- Each class now has 3-4 switchable specialization abilties!
- The new Specialization abilities can be unlocked with data, each costing 100 data.
- Fixed Data not being gained from certain bosses
- Data gain has been increased overall (probably 2-3x)




At the start we went for a more S1-style approach where abilities were more shared, but testers wanted more unique choices, so now the classes have nearly all unique switchable abilities per class. For these abilities we also explored varied new concepts and tried making things "out of the box" such as the placeable warning poles, booster pads, bring back remote triggerable C4, killer drones, radio jammer gadgets and more. Some of these definitely will see more polish but overall these are very varied and some of our best content yet.


[h3]New Class Level Perks[/h3]



- All classes now have new perks which can be unlocked by leveling
- The unlocks are at level 3, 7 and 15
- These contain varied new perks
- Most perks have been expanded on!







New Starter Weapons:

[h3]Red Buzzards [Eliminator][/h3]


[h3]M1911 Helium [Sniper / AM Recon][/h3]


[h3]HS-50 (Updated) [AM-Recon][/h3]


[h3]LS-30 Nightowl [Sniper][/h3]


[h3]LG-3 [Heavy Gunner][/h3]


[h3]Squad-6 Compact [Chrono Trooper][/h3]




New Findable Weapons:

[h3]GM-6 Lynx[/h3]


[h3]Discus Launcher of the High Order[/h3]


Also updated sprites for: Tokko Fusion, Akita Fusion, Varied ammo types
Varied weapons have had rarity adjustments so more variation is at the start of the game







[h3]Improved Loot Progression / Mid game progression (Part 1)[/h3]
Now after the classes are much more engaging, we no longer have to compensate by adding a bunch of random upgrades in the early game where they do not belong. We also noticed that the mid-game progression is lacking. We initially made the mistake of putting too much focus on special shops (Gambler etc), while these should only be a rare bonus thing. The reason this was done was because items are not as good as they can be and that deceived into adding more other things to compensate, which was clearly a fallacy.

The plan now after U5 is first to polish up the items to be the sandbox that is at the essence of the game progression and improve the upgrade systems, while taking away focus from special shops.

Another thing that stood out was that you plateau'd extremely quickly and then after the first boss you were already fully geared and the game became bland and repetitive. This was one thing that we also really hated in S1. Below is a very simplified visual representation, and some details:





[h3]Raritiy drops:[/h3]
- You were getting too many legendaries and epics right at the start, this destroyed the progression
- You now get more blue rarity (common / uncommon) at the start of the game
- Added an additional rarity scaling, this essentially works like luck and increases rarity of loot
- This will result in you finding more epics and legendaries after the first boss but less before
- Varied weapon rarities have been adjusted


[h3]Chests:[/h3]
- Chests were too many and confusing. There were 6 metal chests for weapons.
- Removed Intermediate metal police and metal military item & weapon chests
- Chests now: Wood > Metal > Legendary Metal Police / Legendary Metal Military
- It is now easier to distinguish the different chests and their expected contains
- The Medical chest is now more rare but fully heals


[h3]Shops:[/h3]
- Mid-Map Shops (Gambler, Medical etc) now start spawning after the first Boss
- We think the class starting kits easily hold their own and we don't need these extras to fill in
- End-Map Shops (Pandoras, Compositor) now start spawning in the third map (Before the boss)
- Ability Upgrade shops now are multi use (But there will be a overhaul upcoming)


[h3]TLDR:[/h3]
Overall these changes are making the early game less overloaded and rarities less random.
You get a more logical loot and power progression throughout the maps.
The game "opens up" after the first boss, where more things come into play, compared to "Im done"
More work on making items and mid-game progression better is coming in thenext update.

We are looking for your feedback here, but the next update will make this all more complete.





[h3]Stat Upgrades:[/h3]
- Stat upgrades are back!
- They give some simple but effective body upgrade perks, found in chests


[h3]Kernels:[/h3]
- Kernels now offer a choice of 2
- Tooltips have been updated and Icons improved a little but still should get new icons


[h3]Upgrade Kits:[/h3]
- Weapon upgrade kits now drop less often but give more
- Generally if you find a upgrade kit, you can upgrade your weapon now
- Overall you get a little more
- You now also see the amount you have in the weapon menu
- A buff notifier was added to remind about upgrading


[h3]Other:[/h3]
- Varied enemies have been fixed or tweaked
- Dogs have a more forgiving attack and slow down after hitting once
- Fixed varied enemy stun issues







[h3]Environments:[/h3]
- Visuals in varied areas have been improved
- Added varied graphical improvements (Check out the Dev Blog )
-- Bent Normal Occlusion
-- New Ambient Occlusion Decals
-- New Shadow Planes
-- New Decal shaders
-- New Water shader
-- New Micro Shadows



[h3]New Map for Missile Silo (First area)[/h3]



[h3]New Map for Training / Police Academy (First area)[/h3]



Some juicy environment work upcoming for the next update!






[h3]Items:[/h3]
Priority for the very near future will be to improve items and add item synergies
Items are the core of the Synthetik progression but right now our older items are way below our current skill level and possibility space. We tried to compensate the feeling of "something is missing" with shops and whatnot but in reality it was just item quality that was lacking.

With this update, a few items have been upgraded but overall this is planned for U6.
- Varied (mostly Police) items have new synergy effects
- Added new visual effects for throwing things or punches
- Removed varied boring items to be remade as perks or other
(Combat Methadone, Executioners Badge, Hit List (now Sniper feature), Shield Combobulator)
- Field Rations (not Power rations) and Stun mines moved to rare Lost & Found loot table


[h3]New Item: Destructor Grid[/h3]
Deploys a powerful laser grid below your feet, damaging enemies over time


[h3]New Item: Weapon Jammer[/h3]
Jams weapons of enemies in close range and deals slight damage over time


[h3]New Item: Unstable Current[/h3]
Zaps a near enemy with unstable lightning


[h3]New Item: Thunderstorm Relay[/h3]
Unleashes a storm of shock lightning all around you

[h3]Scaling:[/h3]
- Abilities / Items (Actions) can now inherit power
- This means a buff your item spawns will have the same power as the item
- Spawned units now also have scaling on their ability power based on the spawner ability







[h3]Varied:[/h3]
- Unending Fixes
- Varied technical improvements
- Reduced game size by around 30%
- Reduced Loading times at certain points significantly
- Check out the previous dev blog for more details!


[h3]Audio:[/h3]
- Fixed some big issues with Audio falloff and other things
- Overall there is a huge improvement around non-weapon sounds
- Known issue: Sometimes some sounds, mostly pickups, don't play








Tons of improvements have happened to our unique UniversEdit Framework
Compared to the Early access start or even the start of this year, the workflows, power, speed has probably improved by 500%.

We now actually have achieved that you can edit and create content while in the game / Tutorial level. This is not yet available to modders but we have achieved real runtime creation of game content! We can create a new ability while playing, and spawn it in, do a change, and respawn it.
This is something extremely rare and a great boost to productivity. More work will and should be done to improve workflows and reduce the amount of friction but this is a big change for us.



[h3]New Debug Menu [F3][/h3]
- Don't forget to enable it in your settings first! This works in the Tutorial map.
- We added a new Debug menu. This was done as the previous used an suboptimal third party UI
- We can now far more easily extend the menu
- This also uses a new Hotkey feature where you can bind any button to a hotkey
- There are still some issues to sort out, especially with the search but overall it works



Highly recommended hotkeys to set for yourself:
- Credits
- Grant Ammo
- Toggle Action Debug (New Feature!)
- Spawn Dummy or Enforcer or something
- Remove actions on player




[h3]New Action Debugger[/h3]
- We implemented a new action debugger UI
- Enable with the F3 button (General > Action > ToggleActionDebugUI) and hover over an action
- This shows in realtime how the action paths are executed!



- If the condition is true, it shows green, if not, it stays gray
- We even added a fading animation so you will notice things executing just 1 frame
- This makes understanding complex actions way way easier and you can now see where it's stuck!




[h3]New Warnings[/h3]
- Some new warnings have been added in the action list
- This is warning with varied things, such as "forgot to enable stacks" or "path is still passive"
- We are working on adding more warnings and a popup on action saving





[h3]New Scaling / Inheritance[/h3]
- Spawn action now can inherit its power %, meaning it gets the same power as the spawner action
- Spawn entity now allows adding actions to the spawned entity
- This is widely useful for many things, such as using an existing unit and giving it something
- (Balldefender + Suicide, or Despawn itself after 10s action etc)
- This also means you don't need to create a new entity or entity class to just give it an extra action
- This action also will gain the power scaling inheritance same as spawn action
- This means things like shield dome can now scale which they couldn't before



[h3]Deal Damage Improvements[/h3]
- Cleaned up and hidden un-relevant things to make it easier to use
- Fixed some default values
- Added tooltips for all damage stats
- Added % current health based damage
- Added % max health based damage
- These are very useful to make things scale a little but don't overdo it
- Now works with backstabs



[h3]Shoot ammo Improvements[/h3]
- Now shoots straight if no target is found
- Now takes pellet-count from the ammo into account (shotgun ammo etc)
- Varied fixes, more fixes to come






Here are quite some powerful new goodies you (and we) can use:


[h3]New Conditions[/h3]
- Damaged by this action
- Killed by this action
- Get hit by action
- Get hit by weapon
- Hit by other weapon
- On weakpoint kill
- On explosion spawned
- On Entity spawned by owner


[h3]New Stats[/h3]
- Stat: Weapon damage multiplier
- Stat: Damage taken multiplier
- Stat: Body Recoil


[h3]New Results / Effects[/h3]
- Change Team (Mind control)
- Set Entity Invisible to Enemies
- Spawn Visual Attachment Weapon (Laser)
- Spawn Visual Attachment Entity


[h3]New Targets[/h3]
- Target last entity spawned by action
- Target last entity spawned by owner
- Target all entities spawned by owner
- Target last explosion position


[h3]Other:[/h3]
- You can now use color palettes on classes







[h3]ATTENTION MODDERS!:[/h3]
- Your custom classes still work but you need to reassign the abilities to the new switchable slot list.
- This takes 2 minutes but otherwise they won't show in the menu properly, but are still playable.
- Right now the extra ability is not visible but works, this will be fixed
- For the future class upgrades, make sure to set your focus perks as focus perk category!


[h3]General Known issues::[/h3]
- Sometimes kill and hit audio goes missing
- (!) Avoid reloading or switching weapons at level changes/teleporter
- Sometimes icons display wrong
- Looking into fixes ASAP




Thats it!
There were some things surely forgotten, it will be added in the next fix update patchnotes.

[h3]Roadmap & Dev Blog:[/h3]
By the way - don't forget about our very informative Dev Blog from a couple days ago!
It has a roadmap, Multiplayer info and more!


We hope you enjoy!
- Team FFG

Hey everyone!

Originally the class update was planned to be a shorter update, supposed to add a good iteration or rework some classes, however after starting on some of the classes, level perks and the new switchable slots, it became apparent how the game transformed. It seemed to be the right thing to go all the way and bring it all to that higher level, so you will see a ton of changes in the test branch and the full update.

We also switched our content system to stream content (using "adressables") which means packing things in bundles, as opposed to loading everything directly. This was an important step but causes quite some issues at the start. So overall things did not go exactly as planned and we are sorry for the long wait for an update, but a lot of things have happened in the meantime, and we mean a lot.
So here we go!:




[h3]The Testing Branch is live![/h3]
Try the class update U5 - ORIGIN and let us know what you think.
Now is the time for your feedback on the revamped classes.
There are a huge amount of changes, but some things aren't fully final yet.
At best just try it out with a fresh set of eyes and let us know what you think!

You can enable the public test branch by right clicking your steam library game settings and going to the last tab, and enable the test version in the drop down menu!

[h3]U5 ORIGIN - The Big Class Update[/h3]
Overhauling 12 classes was quite a huge amount of work but it did definitely pay off.
The class update is not supposed to make the classes perfect but give them all a clear foundation and well working core gameplay. We also don't say "specs" anymore, as these are really more like 12 separate classes with some shared elements and body frame at this point.
Some bullet points for the class update are below. It is expected to come out of testing this week, so last chance for your feedback!


[h3]- New Switchable ability slots
- Overhaul of 12 classes, tons of huge changes!
- New Eliminator class
- New Heavy Gunner
- New Rocketeer
- New Sniper
- Many level & graphical improvements
- Stat upgrades are back
- Varied attachment balance tweaks and others
- Tons of under the hood & UniversEdit improvements
- Fixes audio system and tons of fixes
- Many other improvements[/h3]




Please write down your class changes wishlist in the poll here:
IN CASE OF STEAM BLOCKING THE LINK - PLEASE COPY PASTE IT MANUALLY TO YOUR BROWSER!
https://forms.gle/zRysjn71xcgCUQwS8




[h2]Other noteworthy things:[/h2]


[h3]- Super boosted workflows and tools:[/h3]
Our next level ingame editor UniversEdit has come a long way since the EA launch and even made big leaps compared to the start of the year, the workflows have improved dramatically and we also have become way more skilled at using it. Tons of things have improved under the hood and the power is steadily growing.

As example, we can now use UniversEdit while in the game, so it is possible to make changes while playing, save, and then just respawn the ability or weapon, and it will be updated. There are still some inconveniences and a bit laggy menus but we have achieved real ingame creation of game content!
This is not yet available for modding, some things need to be sorted out, but in general we probably have a 500% increase in iteration times since new years, and an similar reduction in bug creation!



[h3]- Pushing the boundaries[/h3]
On the updated classes and new abilities, you will see a lot more things which are outside the box as we tried to push boundaries and see what kind of things can be done with the current tools.



New things that are in testing or are already achieved:

- Glaiving attacks, bouncing from target to target
- Charge up attacks
- Directional microwave emitter construct
- Placable gadgets which can be stepped on
- C4 which can be remotely triggered
- Neutrino bomb with a timed fuse
- Punching constructs for combos
- Thunder and warning poles you can stick in the ground
- TOW Missile launcher emplacements which can fire a guided missile Battlefield style
- Weapons jammer, blocking enemy weapons
- Seismic resonator which can retrigger explosion and used for knockback movement
- Rocket boosts with weapons
- Stealth or partial stealth effects
- Drone swarms
- Mind control
- Sticky Bombs which stick to enemies
- Slow Motion effects
- Delayed lock-on missiles
- "Hold" abilities, like targetlaser
And more


[h3]- Content / Memory Management[/h3]
We are now using the "Adressables" system from the engine, which is a different way of handling content and bundling them in packages. The difficulty is that you can't have any object reference any other from another package, else both packages will be loaded, defeating the entire purpose.
This is also an important step as this makes adding more content (and mods!) not increasing ram cost. In some areas this also drives down overall loading times, as the game will not wait for content to be loaded anymore (that may not be used any time soon).

This system added quite some headaches and delays to the test branch updates but it seems to be mostly sorted out, and ensures that the project is more scaleable. Weeks prior we also had a spring cleaning and removed a ton of unused assets, reducing the game size noticeably as well.
The benefits for you are that RAM usage is now overall a lot lower, in some areas 50% from before. The game now comfortably sits way below 8GB RAM usage.
Our project cleanups also reduced the game size by 30% without losing anything!



[h3]- Graphical Improvements[/h3]
Some more graphical improvements have been done in varied areas.
Some of these are not used everywhere yet, but these are all things which strengthen our foundation for the future. Varied points are listed below:



[h3]- Bent Normal Occlusion[/h3]
By using bent normals to check on the lighting direction, unwanted glowing reflections are reduced, making things looks more realistic. You can see here that the underside of the vehicle does not strangely glow anymore.





[h3]- New Focus on ground details[/h3]



Since most of the visible playing field is ground, we want to add more depth, detail and 3-dimensionality into the ground elements. Some maps already have more of that, but in varied maps there is still a lot of room for improvement. In the screenshot you can see a combination of varied new elements, decals, grills, border trims and more. In general, we all have become more skilled at environment creation and it really shows if you compare newer iteration to our first.



[h3]- New Decal shaders[/h3]



Varied new shaders have been made, they are not fully in use yet but are a significant improvement
Wet puddles can now look significantly more detailed, but also new grunge decals now exist with both more variation and way higher detail and resolution. They can be combined and are based on world space. Grunge shader example:





[h3]- Occlusion [/h3]
We also did some more tricks to shadow areas like the pipes in the oilrig area or deep holes better
and also did new occlusion decals and used more of them, which can shadow objects more realistically where they touch the ground.

[h3]- Micro Shadows[/h3]
By using the bent normal technique, we also can now use micro shadows, which do enable more detailed occlusion at small details especially.



[h3]- Water[/h3]
As the saying goes, if you want something done right, you gotta do it yourself, so we are throwing out things like Unity terrain or plugin water and doing our own implementations. These will be more flexible and have no dependencies or breaking points we can't control. Also we think they will look better in the end. Here is our current new water shader (this has improved in the meantime again):





[h3]- Custom Terrain Material[/h3]
The environment team has been developing our new foundation for terrain shaders which are very promising so far and will be the core of future outdoors areas. The terrain shader supports mesh blending, camera based render textures for things like snow trails, varied layers, tesselation and more.

We also worked on mesh blending techniques, which smoothly transistions between the ground and the asset and avoids sharp ugly intersections. Here a preview of the blending and worldspace biome effect (does not represent final terrain quality)





[h3]- New Floors[/h3]
2 new floors are in development the moment, one is coming very soon "The Cooling Chambers", as alternative second floor, while the other is an alternative for the Arctic level, which is more military themed, but you'll see. We are also looking at some potential arena style maps, but this has lower priority right now.

[h3]- System Improvements[/h3]
Now that the classes are much more engaging, it becomes glaringly apparent that the mid game progression is not at the level it should be. The class update already does tweak the curve of when things appear but this is only one part of it.

--Item Quality
Items at the moment are often quite lackluster.
After the class update, a focus will be to polish up items and make them into the core game sandbox they should be. Often it is mostly visual polish but sometimes the gameplay is simply not engaging. Playing with some of the new items makes it quite clear what the old items are just not on our new skill level and possibility space. Items are the core of Synthetik progression and due to them being lackluster, we tried compensating with shops and other things but that was a bit of a fallacy. Shops will also be improved.

As example, Power array now has a chargup time, sound, glow, laser targeting, screen fx and a buff, a huge difference from before where it just fired an ion shot. Some items have been upgraded a bit already like Power Array but more is to come.

--Item Synergies
We want to add an synergy system which links many items, to form a nice interlocking system of varied builds, planning and choices. Some examples which are already implemented:
- Shock net can electrify the spike strips, making them root enemies
- SAT masterkey fires incendiary shots when you have hot shot
- Field rations allows petting the dog for healing and granting a boost
S1 synergy items will likely also return in some form, like missile control boosting all missile items.

--Item/Ability Upgrades
We are doing an improvement of the system here as well, which will build upon item categories instead of being completely random and the same for all. The current system is too freestyle and unspecific even though it allows for some broken combinations. More info soon.

--Class Upgrades
There is also an idea of mid-run class upgrades replacing the focus perks, but we'll see..



[h3]- Multiplayer[/h3]
Our fully dedicated server based Multiplayer is progressing steadily, it is playable for some time but it needs polish polish polish and as many fixes. It is finally the time where the team starts internally doing serious playtests and where we gradually clean up the issues and start balancing and implementing coop specific features.



Instead of reviving at the next map upon dying, we are trying out a revive mechanic where you trade health to revive a player. This is more punishing on the team and less of a negative feedback loop where the dying player keeps getting weaker and then dies more because he has become weaker.
This should create more tension, be more fair and hopefully avoid making coop significantly easier than single-player.

Our plan for online coop is to have a first public test branch version ready around the Enemy Update.
Right now its most important to fix and polish up the game to a good level and getting multiplayer polished before it's given out. S1 multiplayer very unstable at launch and prone to crashing, we definitely want to avoid this.






[h3]Brief Roadmap:[/h3]

U5 ORIGIN "The Big Class Update"
- Expected this week! Last chance for your class feedback!

U6 HEAT
- Short in-between Update
- Full New "Cooling Chambers" Environment
- Environment Styles (spoiler in the thumbnail)
- Item & Upgrade System improvements
- ?

U7 LEGION "The Big Enemy Update"
- More info in a near future dev blog!
- First Multiplayer testing on test branch around that time





Thats all for today! After the class update has gone live, the enemy update will follow but we keep the enemy update talk for later.

Don't forget the class poll, we really act on your feedback so don't waste the opportunity!

https://forms.gle/zRysjn71xcgCUQwS8

! In case of steam blocking the link - please copy it manually into your browser !!

See you on the field, Androids!
- Team FFG

[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]




----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[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



----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[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



----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[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.

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

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.

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

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