Section 13 News

[EDIT on 9/21 10 AM PDT - Added the Known Issues section]

[h2]Patch Schedule[/h2]

• PDT: 10:00 AM, September 21
• EDT: 1:00 PM, September 21
• CEST: 7:00 PM, September 21
• ICT: 12:00 AM, September 22
• KST: 2:00 AM, September 22

Agents,

We are deploying a major patch (Ver. 0.12.0) to implement new content, as well as changes and improvements, to the game. Some additional changes like melee weapons are still in the works, and will come soon in another update! As we continue to go through the list of suggestions and issues, we will be deploying hotfixes and patches frequently until we can ensure Agents can all comfortably enjoy the game.

We also have a dev log from Dongsoo Oh, the creative director for Blackout Protocol, discussing some changes made in 0.12.0. Please take a look at it if you want to learn more about how your feedback is helping us shape the game!

For the list of changes in this patch, please see below.

[h2]Passive Abilities[/h2]

• Added Latent Abilities–passives that differentiate each agent character
  • In this patch, we added 3 passives for each character. We hope to add more in the future
  • To change passives for your character, you must find the dimensional mirror, which is located in the Director’s Office on the Office level. Through the mirror, you can choose to change the passive of your current character, which will remain until the next time you switch passives
  • Each character’s passives are as below
    • Boy Scout
      • [Default] Fitness Regimen: Grants additional HP
      • Tactical Retreat: When using your active ability, you also drop a hologram decoy and dodge backwards
      • Will to Survive: Increases healing when you’re below a certain HP % threshold
    • Red
      • [Default] Speedloader: Grants faster reload speed
      • Quantum Shadow: Firing weapons within your active ability duration creates a doppelgangers to fire as well
      • Multitasker: When firing weapons that deal physical damage, you also inflict psionic damage
    • Scalpel
      • [Default] Psyops Training: Grants additional psionic damage with weapons and abilities
      • Subatomic Slice: Enemies killed with your active skill explode upon death and inflicts psionic damage
      • Void Pact: Grants firing rate and movement speed bonus while in Astral state. Grants Astral state upon reaching a certain HP threshold, but you will lose Max HP over time
    • Beaker
      • [Default] College Gymnastics: Grants faster dodge roll recovery
      • Boom Juice: When fellow Agents you revive are downed again, they explode and deal physical damage to an area
      • Optimist: Reduces active ability cooldown. Also reduces incoming damage for yourself and allies, if there is one or more allies within a certain radius
  • Passive skill information can be found in various locations in the UI, including the title screen, the Lobby screen, and the Inventory screen
  • Passive skill information can also be found at the telephone booth, where you can change your character or invite friends

[h2]Synaptic Enhancement Additions/Changes[/h2]

• Added new Synaptic Enhancements
  • Adrenaline Boost: Recovers HP when you enter Panic state
  • Meticulous: Recovers HP when you pick up an ammo box
  • Overpowering: Grants a physical damage boost when over a certain current HP threshold
  • Security: Grants a psionic damage boost when you are over a certain Max HP threshold
  • Defense Mechanism: When your HP falls to a certain threshold, you recover some HP but lose Max HP
  • Vengeance I & II: Taking damage gives you a temporary physical/psionic damage boost
  • Prescription: Increases the effectiveness of recovery items
  • Refund: Grants you Credits based on HP recovery beyond your Max HP
  • Budget Killer: Firing physical damage weapons cost Credits but gets a damage boost
  • Reflexes: Increases to your movement speed also boosts your physical damage
  • Runner’s High: Grants a temporary movement speed boost after rolling
• Adjusted existing Synaptic Enhancements
  • Bloodshot: Lowered the per-stack damage increase (damage boost cap remains the same)
  • Lone Shooter I & II: Changed the condition from “while there are no enemies within” a certain radius to “against enemies more than” a certain distance away
  • Quickload: Lowered the grade from Platinum to Gold
  • Snowball Effect: Split into 2 tiers (I & II)
  • Surprise Attack I & II: Changed the condition from “against targets not currently engaged in combat” to “against enemies not currently targeting you”
  • Fright Response: Adjusted the psionic damage boost per each enemy within range, and split into 2 tiers (I & II)
  • Intense Fear I & II: Added the perk of reduced vision impairment while in Panic state
  • Meditation I & II: Adjusted the grades
  • Shadow Stroll I & II: Adjusted the effectiveness bonus, as well as some wording
  • Unstable Parts: Split into 2 tiers (I & II)
  • Coupon Clipper: Adjusted the grade
  • Expense Report I & II: Increased the Credit gain boost
  • Throw I & II: Increased the tactical gear damage boost
  • Cardiac Stimulants: Increased the ally revival speed boost
  • Light Tread: Changed the effect from “Your movement doesn’t make noise” to weapons dealing additional physical/psionic damage “to foes when attacking from behind”
  • Forbidden Number: Increased the duration of the Astral state
  • Slow Burn: Changed the effect from burn duration increase to burn damage increase
  • Forced Evolution: Changed the HP recovery from a flat amount to %, as well as increased the duration of the Astral state
  • Marked Recovery: Adjusted the healing to be in % instead of a flat amount. Also added the perk of capping injury damage to 50% of Max HP
  • Hard Body I & II: Adjusted the HP increase from % to a flat amount
  • Soul Harvest: Adjusted the HP increase per stack from a flat amount to %
  • Resilience I & II: Changed the condition from all the time to for a set duration after taking a hit from an enemy
  • Adjusted general wording for many Synaptic Enhancement descriptions for added clarity

[h2]Community-Requested Changes and Fixes[/h2]

• Addressed the issue of being unable to complete the Office level, if a non-host player holding the access key leaves. The key will now drop instead of disappearing
• Addressed the issue where there would be less vertical FOV than in 16:9 monitors on ultrawide monitors
• Added a slightly longer wait time at party-wipe if any of the Agents have self-revive
• Synaptic Enhancement selection will no longer have a timer while playing in solo mode
  • Please note that the game is NOT paused, so make sure you’re safe!
• Changed so that credits are now obtained by all agents in the team, instead of the one who last-hits
  • Please note that we may adjust the amount of credits earned per Agent in the future, after monitoring balance
• Fanning the hammer for the Revolver is back. We fixed the bug, and added it back into the list of weapon perks
• Added numerical values for HP and Panic Gauge in the Inventory’s General tab
• Added a feature that allows skipping various cutscenes, animations, or visuals
  • Character selection can now be partially skipped
  • Results screen can now be partially skipped
  • Weapon blueprint unlock screen can now be skipped

[h2]Changes/Improvements[/h2]

• Improved first-time gameplay experience
  • When restarting after the tutorial, Agents will now start a solo mode normal difficulty run instead of going to the title screen
  • Agents can now access the game’s menu within the tutorial by pressing the Esc key
  • Added additional enemies in the tutorial
  • Adjusted when Agents would first encounter elements that require some familiarity with the game (e.g., Crawlers) in their gameplay
• Shortened the corridor entering Section 13 for solo mode
• Added an in-game UI element that shows the current mode & difficulty in the Esc menu
• Adjusted balance
  • Adjusted the damage of Psychogen Bombs thrown by QTs
  • Added more consumable and tactical gear drops
  • Adjusted the Credit price of Psychogen Bombs
  • Adjusted some enemy AI to be less aggressive
  • Adjusted spawn locations, timing, and combinations of some enemies
  • Adjusted how UN-X agents react to being panicked
  • Adjusted noise level of suppressed weapons, as well as noise detection level of enemies while they’re asleep
  • Adjusted the timing of some floor tiles disappearing in certain secret room layouts
  • Other various balance adjustments
• Adjusted the depiction of enemies that are asleep and alerted
• Added visual effects for being stunned
• Changed the “access key” in the Office level to an object more fitting and immersive. The console was also updated to a biometric scanner, accordingly
• Improved UI depiction when the Synaptic Enhancement reroll feature is unlocked and usable in the Nethercube UI for the first time
• Further polished the Exterminator’s psionic damage-over-time debuff with sound effects
• Adjusted the location of the save indicator
• Various optimization and improvement work, including network optimization

[h2]Bug Fixes[/h2]

• Fixed the issue where some Nethercube/consumable drops would spawn in unreachable locations
• Addressed the issue where damage number values would overlap if different types of damage are inflicted at the same time
• Fixed the issue where unlocks (weapons & permanent enhancements) would not show properly in the results screen
• Fixed the issue where the camera could move erratically in the S2P Archives
• Fixed the issue where, if you unlocked increased magazine size through permanent enhancement, it did not immediately reflect in the UI
• Fixed the issue where, in rare cases, some enemies did not take damage from the Arc Cannon
• Fixed the issue where the damage type text spilled outside the UI for the Arc Cannon
• Fixed the issue where picking up a new weapon briefly showed the previous weapon’s remaining bullet count in the magazine (instead of showing 0)
• Fixed the graphical glitch that occurred when you rolled while firing a weapon
• Fixed the issue where, if you unlock the additional tactical gear slot, using up your tactical gear would equip you with the slot 1 weapon, instead of the weapon you held before using the tactical gear
• Other miscellaneous fixes and polishes

[h2]Known Issues[/h2]

• Some unlocalized text may be found in the game. We are working to address them in the next patch
• There have been rare cases of Severance (Scalpel's active skill) not being able to induce panic to the Specter, when equipped with the Subatomic Slice passive. We are also looking into this

Please note that if you are playing at this time, your game will not be interrupted. You will be prompted to download the patch the next time you open Blackout Protocol. It is possible for teammates to play with mismatched game versions, which could potentially impact gameplay. So please install the update as soon as possible for the best experience.


- ODS Team

DISCORD | TWITTER | FACEBOOK | INSTAGRAM | YOUTUBE | TWITCH

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2111870/Blackout_Protocol/

Agents,

This was our first in-person event since we released Early Access and we couldn’t wait to meet more of you and have more of you try out the game!



Since we had just added a Rogue (solo) mode right before PAX, we asked the Agents to choose whether they wanted to play solo or co-op mode!
There were quite a few Agents that came back with their friends to play co-op together, and we appreciated that very much.



We had 6 stations available just for Blackout Protocol and even opened up our media computers when we had a long line of Agents eagerly waiting to play. All Agents that played got a hard-hat shaped stress ball, to release the stress of PAX and game demos.



We had a lot of Agents tell us how much they enjoyed the game and even had some Agents give great feedback regarding how the game could be improved. Our Creative Director, Dongsoo, flew in from South Korea to answer any questions and get feedback from players first-hand!



As we’ve been letting everyone know, the game is still in Early Access, which means your suggestions and feedback could change a lot about the game. We just pushed out a new patch with a new difficulty mode after taking feedback from PAX and our community regarding difficulty. Make sure you update the game to try that out!



That’s all the news we had from PAX West this year. We hope everyone enjoyed it as much as we did! Stay tuned for more news on Blackout Protocol, as we’re introducing our next big patch with passive skills and more next week!

Until we see you again in person, see ya’ll in Section 13!

- ODS Kangaroo

DISCORD | TWITTER | FACEBOOK | INSTAGRAM | YOUTUBE | TWITCH

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2111870/Blackout_Protocol/

[h2]Patch Schedule[/h2]

• PDT: 3:00 PM, September 12
• EDT: 6:00 PM, September 12
• CEST: 12:00 AM, September 13
• ICT: 5:00 AM, September 13
• KST: 7:00 AM, September 13

Agents,

We are deploying a patch (Ver. 0.11.4) to implement some changes and improvements to the game. Some of these were originally planned for 0.12, but our team worked extra hard to bring them to our Agents sooner. As we continue going through the list of suggestions and issues, we will be deploying hotfixes and patches frequently until we can ensure players can all comfortably enjoy the game.

We also have a devlog from Dongsoo Oh, the creative director for Blackout Protocol, discussing a major addition in this patch, as well as additional plans for the next big 0.12 patch. Please take a look at it if you want to learn more about how your feedback is helping us shape the game!

For the list of changes in this patch, please see below.
[h2]Community-Requested Changes and Fixes[/h2]

• Added difficulty selection to solo mode
  • Hard difficulty is the previous default difficulty
  • The new Normal difficulty was added in hopes of providing a better onboarding experience for Agents new to Blackout Protocol
  • Made further balance adjustments
  • Solo mode is still in beta, as we will continue to monitor and make further improvements

[h2]Changes/Improvements[/h2]

• Changed the Exterminator’s psionic-damage-over-time debuff so that it disappears after a set duration
• Improved swapping between weapons/tactical equipment
• Adjusted Nethercube and item drop spawn locations
• Improved the interaction for accessing secret rooms

[h2]Bug Fixes[/h2]

• Fixed the issue where the camera could keep switching directions back-and-forth at the entrance of the Lobby level
• Fixed the issue where the room information would sometimes not display properly in the Lobby UI

Please note that if you are playing at this time, your game will not be interrupted. You will be prompted to download the patch the next time you open Blackout Protocol. It is possible for teammates to play with mismatched game versions, which could potentially impact gameplay. So please install the update as soon as possible for the best experience.


- ODS Team

DISCORD | TWITTER | FACEBOOK | INSTAGRAM | YOUTUBE | TWITCH

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2111870/Blackout_Protocol/

Hello, this is Dongsoo Oh, Creative Director of Blackout Protocol.

In this devlog, I'd like to provide a quick update on the 0.11.4 patch, and introduce some of the improvements we'll be making in the upcoming 0.12 patch.

[h2]#1 Patch 0.11.4 – Adding an additional difficulty option to Rogue mode[/h2]
As mentioned in a previous devlog, we'll be adding a new, lower "Normal" difficulty mode for solo players in patch 0.12, and upgrading the current experience to "Hard" mode. So we're rolling out an early version of those changes now, for testing and feedback.


In the new Normal difficulty, enemies will have adjusted HP and attack power, as well as various other behind-the-scenes structural changes we hope will better serve the mode's purpose.

As a better single-player experience was one of the most common pieces of feedback we've gotten so far in Early Access, we wanted to take the time to get it right, and have undergone a few rounds of internal testing with friends and family before bringing this patch to you.

We’ve also streamlined the flow of the early gameplay, and adjusted various other elements so that players will enjoy a smoother solo experience. (For example, Crawlers are a bit of a pain when you're on your own, so we've reduced their spawn rates a bit in Rogue mode.)

We hope any solo players who felt a little overwhelmed previously will give the new options a try.

[h2]#2 0.12 Content Update Sneak Peek – New and revamped Synaptic Enhancements[/h2]
The upcoming 0.12 patch will include several adjustments to overall balance for existing Synaptic Enhancements, as well as the addition of some new ones. The following changes were our primary focus:

• Balance tweaks to mechanics for 3 specific synaptics (Bloodshot, Hardbody, and Resilience).
• Buffs to a whole slew of synaptics, to make them more viable during a run.
• Added Silver-level versions to a bunch of synpatics that previously only had a Platinum tier, which we hope will introduce more variety, and encourage players to pursue different builds.

Separate from these concerns, we're also tweaking and adding a ton of synaptics generally. Changes include:

• Damage increases for existing Bionic and R&D synaptics, plus new synaptic enhancements that better enable synergies across different build types.
• Several new, common synaptics that provide increases to movement speed, e.g. after rolling.
• New synaptics that grant damage boosts proportional to movement speed.

With these changes and additions, we believe a greater variety of playstyles and builds will be viable now, delivering better on the game's core promise of a roguelite experience.

(We're also aware that increasing the overall quantity of pick-up types, in a random-drop upgrade system, brings a few drawbacks of its own. Rest assured, we're working on some solutions to that already.)

We hope you enjoy the changes, and we look forward to hearing your thoughts.

[h2]#3 Upcoming Patch Content Preview – Character Passives![/h2]
Finally, in the 0.12 patch, the most exciting change we're making is the addition of passive abilities, which we've been working on for a while. Passive abilities are character-specific traits that complement an agent's Special, and give each one a more unique playstyle.

[This is a mockup of the UI, showing the active ability up top, and the passive ability at the bottom]

Each character will have several passive abilities, which you'll be able to swap between in safe rooms, using a new device, the Dimensional Mirror.

Despite being "passive", these abilities really alter how each character plays. We're putting a lot of work into making them impactful and fun, and we hope you'll enjoy them.

From 0.12 onward, we’ll be adding new content on an ongoing basis. We'll also continue working to refine the game based on your feedback, and striving to deliver the roadmap of features promised for full release.

Stay tuned!
Creative Director, Dongsoo Oh

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

Editor's note, 9/15:
The previous version of this post mistakenly stated that passive abilities could be switched at the start of a run. Overzealous editing on my part. The post has been corrected to hide my sins.
—ODS Brandon

Fixed the issue where in rare cases game sometime fails to save session progress