Devlog #3: Solo Mode and Balance Changes
Hello, this is Dongsoo Oh, Creative Director of Blackout Protocol.
We have a few big updates coming soon.
[h3]#1: New Single-Player Mode[/h3]
Blackout Protocol version 0.11 marks the addition of a dedicated solo mode, which we're calling "Rogue" mode. This is a one-player variant of the base game, playable online or off, with some tweaks to overall balance to make that doable.
One of the most common pieces of feedback we got after release was the level of difficulty players experienced when playing alone. We've worked hard to address that feedback quickly and thoroughly.
That said, there may still be a few rough edges that could use some additional polish, so we've put a "Beta" tag on Rogue mode for now. Persistent upgrades are shared across Rogue and Squad modes. At the moment, we've reduced Data Nug acquisition rate to 75% for Rogue mode, while we fine-tune the difficulty, but we'll be removing that down the road when the mode exits beta.
Rogue mode is intended for solo play, so it's obviously a bit more approachable than trying to play Squad mode alone. But I wouldn't go so far as to say it's "easier". Our intent to present a similar level of challenge and fun for both modes. A lot of our efforts have gone into rebalancing or removing unreasonably steep difficulty spikes, where many players felt like they had hit a brick wall and the only way past was to grind for upgrades.
We hope that those of you who tried to play alone previously and shared your feedback with us will give the new mode a shot, and enjoy what we've put together. We welcome your suggestions and feedback. (Steam forum, Discord)
[h3]#2: Weapon Balancing[/h3]
This patch update also includes some rebalancing to various weapons.
Our main focus this go-around was on AoE weapons. As the core gameplay of Blackout Protocol entails facing large numbers of enemies, it's important that Agents incorporate them into their toolkit, and that AoE weapons be competitive and versatile enough to allow that.
Previously, our balancing of AoE weapons' DPS was a bit on the conservative side, with relatively low damage per-target, premised on the idea that players would be hitting a large number of targets at any given time. As a result, using an AoE weapon against one or two isolated targets could result in DPS that felt a little underwhelming. We've eased back on that thinking a bit, and made a few changes that will hopefully let AoE weapons be more usable in a variety of situations.
These adjustments include changes to base damage, firing speed, clip size, and ammo capacity. Targeted weapons include the Arc Cannon, the Sawed-Off Shotgun, the Flamethrower, and the Plasmoid Launcher. You can read more detailed specifics in the patch notes.
For the Arc cannon and the Plasmoid Launcher, we are also considering potential changes to how these weapons work. While we are in the process of coming up with further improvements to these weapons, we're also open to any cool ideas or suggestions our Agents have, so please feel free to share.
In addition, we've made some changes to the minigun, which isn't exactly an AoE weapon, but is designed to be used against big groups. Specifically, we've buffed the base damage considerably, to compensate for the fact that it's a tricky weapon to use well.
Finally, we’ve made some tweaks to enemy stats. Previously, some enemies had a maximum Panic threshold that was a bit high compared to their max HP. The result was that Psionic weapons felt like they were comparably a lot weaker than other weapon types.
We've addressed this issue by lowering the max Panic values of various enemies. We've also made a few other changes that should make panic-breaking enemies feel a little more impactful.
However, the strength of various playstyles in Blackout Protocol is highly dependent on the pool of available Synaptic Enhancements a player encounters during a run, and the synergies that result from their combinations. This means that achieving balance between different weapon types takes more than just tinkering with the weapons themselves. We'll be making additional changes in this area on a rolling basis, both by tweaking current enhancements, and adding new ones.
We hope you'll look forward to that, and continue sending us your thoughts on weapon balancing as we go along.
#3: Badges!
Lastly, we added a badge that you can unlock by clearing all currently available content. The badge will be visible on your player ID—on the in-game HUD and in the lobby.
(As a small note: For those of you who have beaten the game already, we would ideally love to grant the badge retroactively. Unfortunately, we weren't tracking that data prior to this patch, so you’ll need to clear the game again. Sorry about that!)
Our goal is a game that feels rewarding to players who like challenging experiences, and we hope this small addition satisfies that. We’re also working on Steam achievements, so you can expect those at some point in the future.
It's only been a few weeks since we launched in Early Access, but between all of your feedback and our own internal discussions, it feels like the time has flown by. As I've said in previous devlogs (devlog 1 & devlog 2), your feedback is something we genuinely pay very close attention to, and it's already having huge impacts on the game's overall direction, as I hope this patch helps demonstrate.
Thank you again for your support, and we look forward to making BP even more fun as time goes on.
Dongsoo Oh, Creative Director
We have a few big updates coming soon.
[h3]#1: New Single-Player Mode[/h3]
Blackout Protocol version 0.11 marks the addition of a dedicated solo mode, which we're calling "Rogue" mode. This is a one-player variant of the base game, playable online or off, with some tweaks to overall balance to make that doable.
One of the most common pieces of feedback we got after release was the level of difficulty players experienced when playing alone. We've worked hard to address that feedback quickly and thoroughly.
That said, there may still be a few rough edges that could use some additional polish, so we've put a "Beta" tag on Rogue mode for now. Persistent upgrades are shared across Rogue and Squad modes. At the moment, we've reduced Data Nug acquisition rate to 75% for Rogue mode, while we fine-tune the difficulty, but we'll be removing that down the road when the mode exits beta.
Rogue mode is intended for solo play, so it's obviously a bit more approachable than trying to play Squad mode alone. But I wouldn't go so far as to say it's "easier". Our intent to present a similar level of challenge and fun for both modes. A lot of our efforts have gone into rebalancing or removing unreasonably steep difficulty spikes, where many players felt like they had hit a brick wall and the only way past was to grind for upgrades.
We hope that those of you who tried to play alone previously and shared your feedback with us will give the new mode a shot, and enjoy what we've put together. We welcome your suggestions and feedback. (Steam forum, Discord)
[h3]#2: Weapon Balancing[/h3]
This patch update also includes some rebalancing to various weapons.
Our main focus this go-around was on AoE weapons. As the core gameplay of Blackout Protocol entails facing large numbers of enemies, it's important that Agents incorporate them into their toolkit, and that AoE weapons be competitive and versatile enough to allow that.
Previously, our balancing of AoE weapons' DPS was a bit on the conservative side, with relatively low damage per-target, premised on the idea that players would be hitting a large number of targets at any given time. As a result, using an AoE weapon against one or two isolated targets could result in DPS that felt a little underwhelming. We've eased back on that thinking a bit, and made a few changes that will hopefully let AoE weapons be more usable in a variety of situations.
These adjustments include changes to base damage, firing speed, clip size, and ammo capacity. Targeted weapons include the Arc Cannon, the Sawed-Off Shotgun, the Flamethrower, and the Plasmoid Launcher. You can read more detailed specifics in the patch notes.
For the Arc cannon and the Plasmoid Launcher, we are also considering potential changes to how these weapons work. While we are in the process of coming up with further improvements to these weapons, we're also open to any cool ideas or suggestions our Agents have, so please feel free to share.
In addition, we've made some changes to the minigun, which isn't exactly an AoE weapon, but is designed to be used against big groups. Specifically, we've buffed the base damage considerably, to compensate for the fact that it's a tricky weapon to use well.
Finally, we’ve made some tweaks to enemy stats. Previously, some enemies had a maximum Panic threshold that was a bit high compared to their max HP. The result was that Psionic weapons felt like they were comparably a lot weaker than other weapon types.
We've addressed this issue by lowering the max Panic values of various enemies. We've also made a few other changes that should make panic-breaking enemies feel a little more impactful.
However, the strength of various playstyles in Blackout Protocol is highly dependent on the pool of available Synaptic Enhancements a player encounters during a run, and the synergies that result from their combinations. This means that achieving balance between different weapon types takes more than just tinkering with the weapons themselves. We'll be making additional changes in this area on a rolling basis, both by tweaking current enhancements, and adding new ones.
We hope you'll look forward to that, and continue sending us your thoughts on weapon balancing as we go along.
#3: Badges!
Lastly, we added a badge that you can unlock by clearing all currently available content. The badge will be visible on your player ID—on the in-game HUD and in the lobby.
(As a small note: For those of you who have beaten the game already, we would ideally love to grant the badge retroactively. Unfortunately, we weren't tracking that data prior to this patch, so you’ll need to clear the game again. Sorry about that!)
Our goal is a game that feels rewarding to players who like challenging experiences, and we hope this small addition satisfies that. We’re also working on Steam achievements, so you can expect those at some point in the future.
It's only been a few weeks since we launched in Early Access, but between all of your feedback and our own internal discussions, it feels like the time has flown by. As I've said in previous devlogs (devlog 1 & devlog 2), your feedback is something we genuinely pay very close attention to, and it's already having huge impacts on the game's overall direction, as I hope this patch helps demonstrate.
Thank you again for your support, and we look forward to making BP even more fun as time goes on.
Dongsoo Oh, Creative Director