Over the last couple months I’ve been reworking all of the melee customization code in the background, and I’m happy to say the first set of new melee weapons are here!
New
3 New melee weapons
New mechanic: Cleave
New mechanic: Stun Force
New mechanic: Melee weapon archetypes
Updates
Melee weapon (style) stats have all been adjusted
Warden's second perk additionally increases base Stun Force by 10%
Broadsword has been deprecated and replaced Sorry to anyone who loved this weapon, it was a placeholder for bonk weapons
Gaining Static while already at max stacks will instead trigger Static Discharge, ignoring the cooldown
Carpet Burn Beacon (Static on dash/dodge) chance reduced to 58% per stack (was 75)
Ranged Mutation reduced to 26% per stack (was 40)
Specials Mutation reduced to 32% per stack (was 50)
Elites Mutation reduced to 30% per stack (was 35)
Demo
Updated to match
Patch Notes (266)
This update includes part 2 of the melee balancing update. Resolve is a new mechanic that is gained when performing Melee actions (dealing damage, blocking or shoving) and covers your health bar. Taking combat health damage will be absorbed by Resolve before touching your health. Resolve is destroyed much faster than your health, so it will only provide you a few hits worth of safety. I think this provides Melee the extra tankiness it needs compared to Ranged combat, while maintaining the skill requirement of the melee system.
New
New Foothills large map tile
New mechanic: Resolve
Updates
Mission and Combat sections of the info menu have been added to
Aura hud element now scales with number of players
Keep updates
Multiple melee enemies have their attacks hit client side in certain situations now. This enables further optimization for the host’s performance and apparent attack accuracy for the client
Recoil updates
Updates to Assassin movement
Updates to various Foothills tiles
Music trigger updates
Fixes
Fixed server browser showing incorrect max players per match (I think?)
Patch Notes (263)
Small update
New
New boss attack
New Foothills small map tile
You can now specifically set the player limit of your multiplayer session, enabling: 1) More control for prevention of extra people joining into your game when you just want your premade group 2) Up to 8 max players (official limit remains 4, use at your own risk)
Updates
Gauntlet initial Mutations now follow a category order The intent here is to make Gauntlet somewhat more consistent across difficulty
Various vfx updates
Tweaks and improvements to a couple map tile layouts
Resourceful beacon (ammo on melee kill) chance increased to 30% per stack (was 16)
Shocks beacon (shock while sprinting) changed to 21 damage per stack, ticking every 0.35s, with 400 range. (was 50 damage, ticking 1-0.15s per stack, 300 range)
Explosive beacon (aoe dmg on kill) damage now scales with Enemy group. 35 for men at arms, 55 for mercenaries and 75 for knights. (was 50 for all)
Status Burst beacon (dmg on status applied) now scales damage per second of status applied, 10-35 dmg per stack for 1-12s capped. (was flat 20 damage per stack)
Updates to objective/shops/pieces location selection to (hopefully) improve consistency
Instant Reloads (e.g. reload on dodge) now trigger Perks that would only trigger on the start of a manual reload (e.g. hot mags)
You now gain 5 medallions for destroying the Source of Power or Shadow
Recoil is now consistent across different firerates
Fixes
Fixed one instance of boss just standing there looking like a dingus for a bit
Fixed an instance of Ranking up charging too much monies
Fixed one instance of objectives spawning extra far away
Fixed recoil stabilization being inconsistent with certain firerates
The Sorcerer - Patch Notes (257)
A new enemy type has arrived
New
New enemy type: Sorcerer (Elite Ranged Mercenary)
New mission interactable: Category Relay Shop
3 new Scout Perks
Updates
Firearm Lightning Ammo adjustments:
Hipfire: beam width increased to 125 (was 100), max hits reduced to 4 (was 8), damage reduced to 75% (was 95), perk chance increased to 28% (was 18)
New shouldering alt fire mode: narrows the beam, dealing 112% dmg but only hitting 1 target, 100% perk chance
Range reduced to 18% (was 20)
I had too much fun making this gun strong and overdid it, apologies for having to nerf something so badly. I also wanted ADS to actually mean something for the gun, so I gave it an alternate fire mode to help its weakness against single targets. I will be closely monitoring this weapon.
Enemies should less frequently switch targets mid-attack
Special spawn chances between the types has been tweaked back to previous (I messed up the resulting percentages in the last patch with some of the back end changes)
Increased melee base damage ~30%, Heavy Swings now have 25% base armor penetration (was 0)
Melee still feels too weak considering the extra risk you take for being in close range. I want pulling out your sword to be equally viable to ranged in every difficulty, not just be a defensive play at higher difficulties when you are out of ammo. I will be closely monitoring this and tweaking over the next few patches
Shockwave Blade now hits a max 5 targets. Stun amount has been increased to also scale with distance to target from 1 to 3. (was a flat 0.75)
With the new increased melee damage, shockwave is way too good as a primary damage dealer. It is intended to be used as a temporary way to silence ranged enemies, but the infinite hits made it way too easy to use for every situation.
Slicer health reduced ~5%
Fancy Blade Beacon duration increased to 1.5s per stack (was 1)
Fixes
Improvements to Assassin’s movement to reduce their seemingly recent newfound love of ignoring the run up and just jumping from the shadows
Fixed boss leap attack’s movement looking super weird on clients
Fixed an instance of boss teleporting far away after killing a player
Fixed some weird vfx related to firing shots into super close targets
Scouts - Patch Notes (252)
The Scouts have arrived! This is a new late-game system designed to make use of those Relics that have become… somewhat less useful once most things have been unlocked. Find the Scout Menu in the keep at the edge of the main room. This is only the start of this system, there are many more Scouts and perks planned to be added in the future.
New
New mechanic: Scouts
Updates
The Shadow will now teleport to a nearby spawner if he is farther than a certain distance from you
Leech Beacon now heals 2% of missing health (was 1 flat health)
Updated the order of some unlocks. if you had already purchased and now it’s locked, it will remain purchased once you get to that point again.
Added some of the new Legends to cosmetic requirements. If you had already purchased them but don’t have the Legend, it will remain equipped until you change it. It will be already purchased once the Legend is achieved again
Relics trade menu has been removed. This was always intended as temporary until the scout system was implemented. I will be keeping an eye on currency economy moving forward to balance this change
Added more fine control between the balance of knights vs. mercenary amounts
Added a new sub map tile location to one of the foothills large tiles
Mission currency you are carrying on your person now shows in opened tac info
Map and Scout info now shows on the end mission screen
Fixes
Fixed more areas where support could not be called in