Gene Shift Auto News

Hey all!

This is a very simple change, but one that will massively level the playing field between new players and veterans.

- When you mutate a skill at a vendor, it now always gives a flat +2 skill levels. It no longer gives +1/2/3/4 based on the rarity.

This is pretty huge, as before veterans could get 3 mutations per match and get 3x4 = 12 bonus points. Whereas new players who might only have commons would get just 3x1 = 3 bonus points. 12 vs 3 is just too big of a difference. Now, all players will get 3x2 = 6. Far more fair!

Rarity still matters for the strength of your mutations. And it also allows you to reach higher levels. So a legendary skill can be taken up to level 8, compared to a common reaching level 5. But you'll have to actually spend your points to get there, thus taking away from other skills. You no longer get the bonus points for free.

Special thanks to Hank for this idea, and for the people who helped me think it through in more detail in Discord. This is a risky change from a business perspective, because part of the reason people grind and/or buy the DLC is to experience higher level skills. And that's now harder to do, as you don't get those extra points. But a fairer game is a funner game, and hopefully word of mouth and longer playtimes will make up for this.

Enjoy!
bencelot

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[GAMEPLAY CHANGES]
- When mutating a skill, it now gives a flat +2 skill levels. It no longer gives +1/2/3/4 points based on rarity.

- As rarity no longer determines skill points, to avoid confusion the rarity colours are no longer shown in the leaderboards and victory screen.

- Random class now gives +0/15/20/21/22/23/24/25% instead of +0/15/25/26/27/28/29/30% cash and XP.

[p]Hey all, this version makes a significant improvement to the skill rarity system, especially for new players! Here are the big changes:
[/p][p]1) You can now equip COMMON skills to your skill builds. You no longer need to get them to Rare status.[/p][p]2) You can now buy MUTATIONS for common skills as well. This will give +1 skill point (Mutating Rares now gives +2, Epics +3, Leges +4).[/p][p]3) Mutations for skills are now split into 4 steps instead of 3, allowing common skills to access the lowest tier of the mutation.
[/p][p]Generally the gap between veterans and newbies is smaller now. For example a legendary mutation used to be 3x stronger than a rare mutation. But now it is only 2x stronger. New players will also be able to copy the skill builds that they see in the leaderboards, and be able to equip this reliably on ALL classes, instead of having to get Rare's first. And also, everyone can try out all the mutations the moment they unlock the skill![/p][p]Enjoy![/p][p]bencelot
[/p][p]----[/p][p]\[GENERAL CHANGES][/p][p]- The Deluxe DLC now also gives a one-time +30 level boost (not that useful for vets, but good for new players).[/p][p]- 2x the amount of ACID is given when claiming level ups. It is now 100/300 instead of 50/150.[/p][p]- Full Flasks are now called "Double Rare Flasks" and they guarantee at least 2 rares (or higher) drop. Cost is now 1000 instead of 750.[/p][p]- Tweaked a few button colours, fixed a few bugs, and improved the tutorial.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]\[GAMEPLAY CHANGES][/p][p]- Common skills can now be equipped to builds and get mutations as mentioned above.[/p][p]- Skills can now go up to level 8 instead of level 7.[/p][p]- Most skills have an extra 8th skill point added to the end, bigger than the 7th. But some have been rescaled instead because an 8th point would be too busted.[/p][p]- Rescaled all of the mutation values for every skill, mostly to fit a 3/6/9/12 pattern instead of a 4/8/12 pattern.[/p][p]- Fixed a big bug where vendor skill upgrades were being applied to skills that didn't have that tag. This will fix a lot of broken builds.[/p][p]- XP Fountains now hold more XP and drain faster if you have random class/build modes applied.[/p][p]- Active skills generally have slightly longer cooldowns now (by about 2s).[/p][p]- Random skills mode now gives +15% instead of +10% ingame farm[/p][p]- Random classes now give +15/20/25/27/28/29/30% instead of +20/23/26/27/28/29/30%[/p][p]- Reduced down the amount of cash in the game. Slightly boosted the amount of health kits in R3.[/p][p]

\[GAMEPLAY CHANGES THAT WERE SILENTLY HOTFIXED A WEEK AGO][/p][p]- More trophies are awarded at the end of solos matches, with the potential to actually get 11 trophies for winning a solo game if there are enough high rank players in the server.[/p][p]- Fixed the zombie respawning algorithm to make it almost impossible to rspawn more than 250m away from an incoming heart drop[/p][p]- All healing skills are 50% as effective in the circle of death[/p][p]- You can no longer enter civilian vehicles. However, a single shot will force the civilian to jump out[/p][p]

\[SKILL CHANGES][/p][p]- Executioner now only buffs bullet damage, not nades skills, etc[/p][p]- Killer Cooldowns gives half as much cooldown restoration to skills (chems and ammo are untouched)[/p][p]- Automatic Armor gives slightly less damage reduction[/p][p]- Regen has slightly slower healing[/p][p]- Blade Mail kicks in at 50% instead of 40% health, but with weaker damage reduction[/p][p]- Poison Trail has a 4s delay after triggering instead of a 2s delay[/p][p]- Charged Shot now gives a bit less damage after casting skills[/p][p]- Frenzy's base duration is 4s instead of 3s[/p][p]- Stimpacks mutation drop rate is a bit lower[/p][p]- Medical Supplies has slightly less healing[/p][p]- Shrapnel has slightly less chance to spawn nades in crates[/p][p]- Phase Drifting is a bit slower[/p][p]- Bullet Time has 3.5 instead of 4s duration[/p][p]- Energy Vortex has a slightly faster cooldown, but less healing[/p][p]- Flaming Bullets gets back the duration skill tag, and the duration now scales with level[/p][p]- Firestorm now does 50% damage at the edge of its splash radius instead of 100%. It's cooldown is slightly faster[/p][p]- Boots of Travel moves a tad faster.[/p][p]- Beefcake now gives a bit more max health.[/p][p]- Cluster Bomb now fires a fixed 1/2/3/4 bazookas at the end, instead of a fraction of the grenades thrown.[/p][p]

\[WEAPON CHANGES][/p][p]- Flaregun, Blast cannon, and Molotovs all now deal 50% damage at the edge of their splash radius instead of 100%.[/p][p]- M3 now has +1 bullet in the magazine and does 70 instead of 63 damage per shot.[/p][p]- SPAS now has 100 rpm instead of 120, but does 65 damage per shot instead of 54 (same DPS, but more bursty).[/p][p]- Blast Cannon now does 80 damage per shot instead of 60, but it's rpm is 90 instead of 120 (same DPS, but more bursty).[/p]

Hey all, just a small balance and bug fixing update. This hopefully fixes the server crash issue that's been going on the last month, but if not please report it in the global chat to let me know.

Enjoy!
bencelot

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[GAMEPLAY CHANGES]
Empty cars and civ/cop cars no longer take extra damage. It's the same damage as cars take when players are inside them.

The warmup round no longer gives voting for a round modifier, so we play with just 2 per match instead of 3. 3 imho is just too much to keep track of and I often forget which ones are active. Also warmup needs time for ppl to chat and rest between games (or open flasks), which atm you can't do as you are required to win the warmup.

Shields pickups give +20% instead of +10%, but are capped at 40% instead of 50% (it takes 2 kills to max out instead of 5, which allows noobs to catch up max level with vets fasters, and prevents vets snowballing once they hit 5+ kill streaks)

Toned down the excessive brightness on critical bullets to improve visual clarity

The camera view range is extended slightly


[SKILL NERFS]
Flaming Bullets dps ranges from 2 to 8 instead of 2.4 to 9.6

Vamprism healing is now 6% to 24% instead of 8% to 32%

Laser Scope bullet speed ranges from +10% to +40% instead of +12% to +48%

Radiate's explosion range is reduced slightly

Energy Vortex cooldown is 2s longer at all levels

Falling Inferno's damage ranges from 30% to 120% instead of 40% to 160%



[SKILL BUFFS]
Regeneration's mutation restores ammo at 25/50/75% instead of 20/40/60%

Automatic Armor recharges every 12s instead of every 15s

Frenzy mutation reworked. It now adds a flat +2/4/6s to the frenzy duration when cast (so it becomes 5/7/9s), instead of adding it after each kill. Can't chain it anymore, but it's more reliable and noob friendly

Stimpacks now has a 12/24/36% chance of a med-kit instead of 10/20/30% chance

Clip Magnet now only takes 12/8/4s to recharge the other gun instead of 15/10/5s. Seeking speed is slightly higher too for all levels.

Blade Mail's mutation now gives +15/30/45 damage per med kit instead of +10/20/30

Proximity Rounds mutation makes you charge rounds +150% faster when near gangsters instead of +100% faster

Xray Vision's mutation now also shows "hidden" rare loot crates in the minimap. These are the crates that don't have a spawner underneath them.

Smoke Bomb's mutation now spawns 2/4/6 med kits instead of 1/2/3

Hypnotic Army cooldown is 2s faster and has a slightly larger radius

Poison Trail's chance of double damage is now 33/67/100% instead of 25/50/75%

Charged Shot's mutation now restores 20/40/60 health instead of 15/30/45

Bullet Time seeking now ranges from 20 to 80 instead of 10 to 70

Illicit Incomes cash per wanted level now ranges from 10 to 40% instead of 8 to 32%

Shockwave's cooldown is now 2s faster for all levels

Invisibilty's mutation now goes up to 100hp damage instead of 60hp, and gains at a rate of 8/16/24 damage/sec instead of 5/10/15

Spike Trap makes enemies vulnerable for 4s instead of 3s

Flying Dagger's base damage (to enemies above 50% health) is now 40% to 70% instead of 30% to 60%

Gunslinger once again boosts your reload speed, ranging from +20% to +80%. The grenades don't fly quite as fast through the air as before

Teleportation cooldown is now 3s faster for all levels

Manic Mechanic's +50% rate of fire duration now lasts 6/12/18s instead of 4/8/12s

Combo Killer's infinite shifting after a kill is now 2/4/6s instead of 1.5/3/4.5s

Soul Drop's jump height out of XP Pools is now 15/30/45 instead of 10/20/30m



[BUG FIXES]
- Hopefully fixed the server crash bug.

Mutate your skills to unlock new combos!

Skills are the core of GSA. The first 90% of each match is spent leveling up as fast as you can to unlock skills and create strong synergies before the final showdown. Well this process just got a whole lot more interesting with skill mutations.



Every skill now has a "mutation power". This isn't active to begin with, but you can activate it at vendors by spending a new in-game currency called Syringes. A simple example of a mutation is the Self Repair skill. This normally just heals you, but if you activate it's mutation power it will ALSO make you move much faster for the 2 seconds that the heal is active. This opens up new ways to use the skill, like chasing or escaping from enemies.



[h2]54 Unique Mutation Powers[/h2]
All 54 skills in the game have their own unique mutation power. Here are a few examples:

- Radiate's mutation makes your own nukes heal you, allowing you to cast it on yourself.
- Executioner's mutation causes enemies to explode when they die, creating chain reactions of cops exploding eachother.
- Invisibility's mutation causes you to accumulate damage when standing near enemies, allowing you to stalk enemies to secretly charge up a powerful shot.
- Flying Dagger's mutation makes your throwing knife fly back to you like a boomerang, allowing you to double hit enemies and do trick shots.
- Bullet Time's mutation will steal all nearby enemy bullets and fire them back towards them (like in this image below).



[h2]Activate Mutations with Syringes[/h2]
You get +1 syringe every 5 score you earn in game, and it works out so that most players will be able to activate either 2 or 3 mutations each match. But you'll usually have 5 skills, so you'll need to choose which skills you want to build around, as you can't mutate them all.

Mutating a skill will also give that skill a big boost of skill points, based on the rarity of that skill, forcing you to really invest into the skill you're mutating. This is a big power spike, and makes it extra exciting to earn score and get that next syringe. The primary way to get score is to level up but also get kills during overtime, and this new incentive to get score ASAP gets players to really hunt kills during the final showdown moments, instead of hiding away.



[h2]Full Changelog[/h2]

[GAMEPLAY CHANGES]
- When you die or respawn, all vendor options reset for you.

- When zombies revive, they only start with 100 health, and will need to regen the reset.

- Knife now does 70hp damage, with 60 rate of fire. Instead of 60hp damage, with 80 rate of fire.

- Shadows from players in the air are more visible.

- Bomb Boxes have a slightly bigger explosion radius.

- Crate Race modifier can only be completed once per round.

- The leaderboards now show players' actual builds used in-game. Not their builds from the menu. This includes the skill level and syringes.

[CLASS CHANGES]
- Assault's reload speed is now +70% instead of +50%.

-Fixed a bug where criminal's gangster could kill enemies. It now caps at 1hp like the rest of the gang.

-Criminal's gangster has a 3% chance of appearing instead of a 5% chance when shifting.

[SKILL CHANGES]
- Backtrack renamed to Teleportation. Teleportation will teleport you to your target after a short channeling time. After teleporting, it will heal you.

- Combo Killer now drops loot starting at double kills, not triple kills.

- Armed Robbery rewards are now only given once every 60s. A little indicator will appear above the vendor's head to show when it's ready to be killed again. Speed vendor upgrades speed this up.

- Armed Robbery has higher drop rates to compensate.

- Blade Mail no longer buffs the next bullet as it takes damage. Instead, Blade Mail will drop damage med kits as you take damage.

- Rambulance no longer boosts your vehicle speed (too hard to drive with). Instead it will make your car take less damage.

- Energy Vortex no longer slows enemies (for netcode smoothness reasons). It has been compensated by having a larger radius and doing more damage/healing.

- Automatic Armor's protection duration is now 2s instead of 1.5.

- Firestorm flies a bit slower through the air.

- Assassinate's econ boost ranges from 30% to 120% instead of 40% to 160%.

- Critical Rage's cooldown rescaled to 32 to 8s, instead of 30 to 12s.

- Spike Trap's vulnerability time is 4s instead of 3s.

- Clip Magnet has greater seeking, but takes longer to refill a clip. The seeking bullets also now expire when that gun reloads.

Hey all, this version just polishes up the econ and scoring systems a bit. It mostly plays the same with one key difference - how to score well.

Your score from level ups is now capped at 20 (when you hit level 10). This is fairly easy for most veteran players to achieve, and so everyone will be equally on 20 points here. Instead, focus on outscoring enemies by getting more kills during overtime, and by winning the rounds 1 and 2 showdowns, which now give +5 score each (in hindsight they should have done this a long time ago).

The reason for the score cap is that players were taking specific econ skills and classes just because they gave more XP, more levels, and thus more score. That's not a great incentive. It's still useful to take these classes because being a higher level makes you more powerful, but you'll now need to actually USE that power by killing enemies in showdowns if you want bonus score. You can't just automatically get more score than other players just by choosing the right class.

Another benefit of this change is that it tones down the RUSH factor of GSA. GSA is all about farming, and of course you still want to outfarm your enemies. But now you no longer NEED to do this. You can afford to do other things that don't give farm (eg shop from vendors, place chemicals, fight gangsters) and not worry that you're falling behind in score. So this opens up more strategies to win, and also removes the psychologcal feeling of "guilt" that you're doing something other than grinding XP.

Now you can chill out before overtime, and not rush. Use this time to prepare your build, then get a lot of kills and wins in overtime.

Enjoy!
bencelot

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[SCORING CHANGES]
- Score earned from level ups is now capped at 20 (level 10)

- We now get +5 score for winning rounds 1 and 2


[ECONOMY CHANGES]
- No new skill appears at level 15

- Deaths now remove 200xp instead of 100xp

- Kills now give 50xp + 10xp x streak (capped at 100xp) instead of a fixed 100xp

- Cops now give a flat 10xp and $100 per kill, instead of $50 + 10 x Wanted level

- The main supply drop has an extra $1000 and 100xp in it

- XP Fountains are now shown in the minimap

- XP Fountains are now only disabled for 20s instead of 120s

- Improved the pacing and difficulty of Survival mode. Also the Hostile Vendors modifier no longer hides vendors from the map.



[MODIFIER CHANGES]
- Crate Race gives 1 vendor upgrade instead of 2, but only requires 20 instead of 30 crates



[SKILL CHANGES]
- Force Field explosion damage is now 10 instead of 30

- Frenzy duration is now 2.5s instead of 3.0s

- Falling Inferno damage now ranges from 40% to 160%, instead of 30% to 120%. However, by default it no longer gives extra molotov duration

- Rambulance healing lasts for 10s instead of 6s

- Illicit Income cash per wanted level is doubled.

- Armed Robbery drops slightly more cash per vendor killed

- Mana Shield duration is now 3s instead of 2.5s after using a skill

- Proximity Rounds has a slightly larger trigger radius

- Radiate has a slightly larger area

- Laser Scope has slightly faster bullet speed but less range


[WEAPON CHANGES]
- Bazookas rpm is now 70 instead of 60



[CLASS CHANGES]
- Heavy gains +2.5% instead of +3.0% ROF when at low health

- Scavenger shifts are +33% instead of +50% faster (when moving. Still +150% when standing still)