1. Section 13
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Section 13 News

CB 2 Minor Hotfix - April 6

Agents,

We are releasing version 0.7.2.1 BuildNum 20 to address a couple of issues reported during beta thus far.

The patch will be live at:
  • PDT: 9:10 PM
  • EDT: 12:10 AM, April 7
  • CEST: 6:10 PM, April 7
  • ICT: 11:10 PM, April 7
  • KST: 1:10 PM, April 7

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.

[h3]Fixes[/h3]
  • Fixed client crash that sometimes occurred when restarting a session
  • The Private Room function was removed from the matchmaking lobby as players could not be invited to the rooms and also didn't pop in the Room list.

Thank you for your patience and for playing our beta!
ODS Team

NOW OPEN: Closed Beta 2

Agents,

The gate of Section 13 is open once more for 4 days.
Enter and neutralize the creatures lurking within, and help zap game bugs at the same time.

[h3]Beta Schedule[/h3]
  • PDT: 3 PM, Apr 6 – 3 PM, Apr 10
  • EDT: 6 PM, Apr 6 – 6 PM, Apr 10
  • CEST: 12 AM, Apr 7 – 12 AM, Apr 11
  • ICT: 5 AM, Apr 7 – 5 AM, Apr 11
  • KST: 7 AM, Apr 7 – 7 AM, Apr 11


[h3]Our Mission [/h3]
  • Show improvements made from CB1 players' suggestions and confirm the game is on the right path.
  • Confirm the core gameplay and roguelite elements of the game are fun.


[h3]Your Assignments[/h3]
1. Play Blackout Protocol HERE
2. Participate in the survey HERE
3. Leave your bug report and feedback HERE and vote for others’ feedback
4. Join Discord and discuss everything and anything Blackout Protocol with fellow agents HERE

[h3]Quick Note[/h3]
Main menu navigation is something we are actively working on based on the CB1 feedback but unfortunately not part of this beta.
Read more about what we're doing to improve it in THIS blog.

So just in case you need a reminder on how to navigate the main menu:

  • Overall navigation: Use arrows and/or WASD keys and press “Enter” to select
  • Quick Start: Join a random room or it will create a room for others to join
  • Lobby: Find another agent’s room or create your own – The room is named after the host’s name
  • Open Play Test Survey: Take the survey on the web form. Your feedback is appreciated!
  • Open Feature Upvote: Leave your suggestion, feedback, or report bugs on the board
  • Settings: You can change video, controls, audio, and language settings


And if you want to check out what changes have been made from CB1, check out our PATCH NOTES.

Once more unto the breach!
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

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

Blackout Protocol CB2 Patch Notes

Agents,

We’ve got intel that there has been some activity within Section 13 base, making additional investigations a must. This is the chance for our agents to prove what they’re made of. Sign up for and play our second closed beta!

Thank you in advance for your participation and feedback, which help us create a better Blackout Protocol experience for all agents. Please make sure you stay tuned to our Feature Upvote board for leaving feedback, as well as our Discord server for any discussion or updates.

We also have an important note for CB1 participants: in order for us to accurately assess how effective the changes from CB1 are, you will lose all progression data from CB1 when you play CB2.

Before we dive into the details of CB2 changes, we have some notes from our creative director!

—————————————————

Greetings, Agents!

This is Dongsoo, the Creative Director of Blackout Protocol. The biggest improvement we wanted to make since CB1 was adjusting the difficulty during early and mid-game. Based on CB1 results, we concluded that the overall balance had a steep learning curve at the start, while the mid-to-late game was not as challenging as we thought it would be. We thus adjusted the overall difficulty curve. The image below should give you an idea, where the black line is for CB1 and the green line is for CB2.



To go hand-in-hand with the difficulty change above, we made power-ups more tangible by adjusting when agents acquire Synaptic Enhancements during gameplay. We also added new map and creature elements so that agents can notice different variations when playing multiple runs.

Two major changes we made on the out-game side of things: supporting voice chat by default and adding quick communication (pings & quick chats). We deemed it a priority to have communication tools that help agents work closely together. Since this is our first iteration of the quick communication, we’d like to ask for your feedback so that we can make it even better.

We also made improvements to the permanent enhancements–an essential part of any roguelite game. Permanent enhancement elements are now more accessible, and the UX has been improved. Our findings from CB1 indicated that the high early-game difficulty led to some agents quitting before they reached the first safe room, which is where they would have experienced the roguelite progression. We believe the difficulty adjustments in CB2 will alleviate such concerns. We also made the safe room area, as well as the various interactable objects within, more easily recognizable. Additionally, we made it so that agents must spend all permanent enhancement resources before they proceed to the next map. If you find yourself not being able to exit the safe room, please check if you (or your fellow agents) have any unspent Data Nugs or unsubmitted weapon blueprints.

On top of all that, we made a lot of polishes to various elements that hampered a smooth gameplay experience during CB1. While we cannot claim everything is perfect in CB2, we strongly believe you will see how the game continues to improve. We hope you have more fun in CB2, and would like to ask for your feedback to help us keep making more improvements in the future.


Sincerely,
Dongsoo Oh

—————————————————

Changes from CB1

We have been working on making additions and improvements from our first closed beta earlier this year. Below is a quick list of changes.

[h2]Community-Requested Changes[/h2]

[h2]Roguelite Elements[/h2]
  • Changed so that agents must use all permanent growth currency (Data Nugs & weapon blueprints) in the safe room to proceed
  • Added 7 new permanent enhancements
  • Adjusted some existing permanent enhancements (examples below)
    • Extended Clip will now apply only to Firearms Department weapons
    • Card Collector will now increase max HP, instead of healing current HP
  • Added a tiered unlock system for permanent enhancements, based on the number of Data Nugs spent

[h2]UI/UX[/h2]
  • Revamped the character selection screen with updated character looks
  • Made improvements to the results screen
    • Added effects and lore elements to enhance immersion
    • Added visual cues that indicate if an agent has the highest output in a certain category (e.g., physical damage)
    • Added an indicator for overall map progression for the run
  • Added level art and information in the loading screens
  • Made improvements to the HUD
    • Remaining ammo in the current clip is better visible
    • When the current clip is empty, it is more noticeable with a flashing "0"
  • Added UI to indicate agents entered the safe room
  • Added the feature to invite Steam friends

[h2]Combat[/h2]
  • Added a reset at the very start of the run, when agents are entering the front gate of facility into the parking lot
    • This was because we saw some agents, after experimenting upon choosing their weapons, sustained heavy injury damage and spent all ammo before even starting the mission
  • Added variations to 4 of the creatures
  • Added variations to maps
    • Some of the map variations will unlock based on the agent’s permanent progressions
  • Adjusted how the injury mechanics works
    • Initial injury amount has been reduced
    • Now the longer an agent stays downed, the more injury penalty they will sustain

[h2]Others[/h2]
  • Added background music
  • Added various sound effects (flashlight, results screen, combat, etc.)
  • Added visual and sound effects to indicate when active skills are off cooldown
  • Added small talk between agent characters
CB2 Known Issues

We will update this section as we get more information.
  • You may encounter unlocalized text when joining through Steam friend invite
  • If you press the Esc key at the same time as interacting with a Nethercube, you will not be able to select a Synaptic Enhancement
  • Effects of the Shadow Stroll Synaptic Enhancements currently apply even when the agent is not in the dark
  • Effects of the Shadow Stroll Synaptic Enhancements do not apply on Beaker’s active ability
  • Effects of the Slow Burn Synaptic Enhancement is not properly applied
  • Effects of the Expense Report II Synaptic Enhancement is not properly applied
  • Effects of the Unstable Parts Synaptic Enhancement is not properly applied when using the Arc Cannon
  • When picking up a weapon, it shows the remaining ammo count of the previous weapon while the actual clip is empty upon pickup
  • When using Quick Start, if a room fills up, you will see the loading screen but be booted out to the title
  • If you are revived while spectating, your camera may reflect the vision of the character you were spectating (e.g., panicked vision)
  • The Arc Cannon attack can arc through a wall
  • Turning speed while equipped with some weapons can sometimes be faster than intended
  • If a teammate has fallen to death, there may be cases where the body is not teleported to a location allowing revival (Reported on Feature Upvote) - Fixed with hotfix on April 7


- The ODS Team

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

Wrapping Up PAX East 2023

Agents,

Did you know that Blackout Protocol was announced at PAX West 2022? Well, we also have a new Closed Beta coming up and our desire to meet you in person didn’t change these last few months, so we also went to PAX East 2023!
To those of you who we met in person–a huge thank-you for standing in line for so long to play the game. And double thanks from the bottom of our hearts to those who not only came back but brought friends to play the game with them!



This time around, our setup was larger. 6 dedicated stations and 3 additional stations for the press as opposed to 3 dedicated stations and 0 press stations. But the line was very long this time around too, so the press stations were made available to everyone whenever the press wasn’t using them.







Although we had great success last time running a challenge event for PAX attendees to try and win our kickass mousepad, we wanted more players to walk away with goodies so 600 Blackout Protocol bags stuffed with a BP pin and coaster were given upon playing a session of 15 minutes and completing a super quick 5-question survey. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it), our line got so long that we had to shorten each session to 10 minutes and exhausted the supply by day 3. Nevertheless, day 4 attendees happily lined up, played the game, and had fun, for which we were very grateful.




Why did we run the survey, you ask? Well, we wanted to capture at least a glimpse of what kind of players were drawn to our game at PAX.
And we learned a few things such as that the vast majority of the players play roguelike/roguelite games.



That a lot of the PAX players were really good at Blackout Protocol. (Much superior to my first few attempts, that’s for sure.)



That the look of the game and its art motivated people to stop by the booth.



Oh, and that we could do a little better job of telling people about the closed beta date.



We had plenty of our friends from the media come by to play the demo and talk to our Creative Director Dong Soo Oh and Production Director Jae Eun Park, and we were happy to see some familiar faces! We hope to see everyone in person again at our next con and in-game during Closed Beta. ;)




Despite the great fun and success we were having, we were all pretty much pooped and ready to go home by the final day. But that’s when it happened–the event that put the cherry on top of our already heavily iced cake–we won Best in Show award from Critrate for the house of Galabander. According to their categorization of gamers, Galabanders are gamers who enjoy multi-players and “thrive when playing with others,” so pretty much our target players! PAX attendees who took their 42-question survey at their booth voted us over Mario!
To say we were overjoyed and a little teary-eyed is not an exaggeration.




Watch the video capturing the moment we got the award and look at more behind-the-scenes photos on our IG account.

Well, that about wraps it up for PAX East 2023 and we are now counting down to CB2, which starts April 6th.
As fun as PAX was, we can’t wait to have even more players like you playing Blackout Protocol and give us feedback to help guide the game towards Early Access launch and beyond!

Onwards! …after a little break. We’re so tired.

See you next time,
ODS ThorThor



DISCORD | TWITTER | FACEBOOK | INSTAGRAM | YOUTUBE | TWITCH

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

Closed Beta 2 is Coming - Sign Up Now

Agents,

Once more into the fray--join the second Closed Beta to help contain and eliminate the QTs at Section 13.

Sign up now and play the latest Blackout Protocol on April 6th.

How to sign up:
1. Go to Blackout Protocol Steam Store page
2. Click on the button.



Closed Beta will last 5 days:

PDT: 3 PM, April 6 - 3 PM, April 10
EDT: 6 PM, April 6 - 6 PM, April 10
CEST: 12 AM, April 7 - 12 AM, April 11
KST: 7 AM, April 7 - 7 AM, April 11
ICT: 5 AM, April 7 - 5 AM, April 11


See you soon.

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