Gene Shift Auto News

This patch tweaks the cash and XP rates to make farming more meaningful, and adds key milestones to aim for just before the rounds 1, 2 and 3 showdowns.

Firstly, we all earn a lot more cash and XP. Tier 2 and tier 3 weapons are also $5000 cheaper, so we'll all be more powerful by the final showdown.

Also, skills now level up at fixed, predictable levels. We get new skills at levels 1/2/5/8/11/14. If you farm well, you can reach level 5 just before the round 1 showdown. This is important because level 5 now always gives you a LEGENDARY boosted skill, which starts at level 4 and can reach a super OP level 7. Levels 8, 11 and 14 will give everyone EPIC or RARE skills, which also give bonus points and provide key milestones right before the round 2 and 3 showdowns.

Enjoy!
bencelot

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[SKILL DRAFT CHANGES]

- We now always see brand new skills at levels 1 and 2. Then 3 and 4 upgrade them. Then we get boosted skills on level 5/8/11/14/17.

- Normal skills can now go up to level 4 instead of level 3.

- Boosted skills now come in 3 rarites: Rare, Epic and Legendary.

- Legendary skills always appear at level 5. They start at level 4 and go up to level 7.

- Epic skills can appear at levels 8, 11, 14 and 17. They start at level 3 and go up to level 6.

- Rare skills also appear at levels 8, 11, 14 and 17. They start at level 2 and go up to level 5.


[ECONOMY CHANGES]

- Getting 5 streak points now gives you a flat +500xp, instead of a free level up.

- The Kill Reward now gains xp and cash 33% faster.

- Supply Drops give an extra +100xp, +$1000 and +3% weapon damage.

- Cops give 11/12/13/14/15xp based on your wanted level instead of a flat 10.

- Tier2 weapons cost $5000 instead of $10,000 (but are still only available on round 2)

- Superweapons cost $15k instead of $25k ($10k instead of $15k to upgrade from your tier 2 gun)


[GAMEPLAY CHANGES]

- Cops have 50 instead of 40hp health and do 100% instead of 80% damage.

- 3 supply drops instead of 1 spawn at the start of a BR match

- Supply drops gain armor for each player nearby, shown by an expanding health bar.

- Civilians now eject from cars faster, immediately as soon as it starts flaming

- Shotguns now deal more damage but have worse range and spread


[GENERAL CHANGES]

- Updated the default control scheme a bit (for new players). Interacting with HUD is now CTRL, placing chems is now C, slashing knife is now middle mouse

- All players, now including F2P people, will show off their account level when they win a round

- Your Streak point progress is shown below your health bar.


[SKILL BUFFS]

-Radiate cooldown is now 18/17/16/15/14/13/12 instead of fixed at 16s. It does +5 impact damage per level and the radius is 10% larger

-Beefcake doesn't increase your hitbox size as much (lvl 7 is +20% instead of +40%)

-Falling Inferno now additionally increases your molotov duration by 1 to 7s

-Critical Rage chance now ranges from 140 to 380% instead of 133 to 333%

-Illicit Income values are halved, but it now increases your XP earned as well

-Shrapnel chance of free nade now ranges from 50% to 350% instead of 40% to 280%

-Armed Robbery chance of big XP ranges from 25 to 175% instead of 20 to 140%

-Medical supplies healing ranges from 10 to 40 instead of 5 to 35 per loot

-Hypnotic Army range increased by 5m, and cooldown is now 10 instead of 12s. Max vendors is now 0/0/1/2/3/4/5

-Invisibility duration buffed by 5s per level

-Blade Fury slashing damage is now 100 instead of 60 hp/s

-The bonus damage duration after spike trap is 4 instead of 3s

-Flying Dagger range and speed increased by 10m for all levels

-Backtrack duration increased by 1s for all levels

-Rambulance damage also increases car mass for collision purposes


[SKILL NERFS]

-Flaming Bullets duration now ranges from 0.5 to 1.1 instead of 0.3 to 1.5s

-Regeneration healing ranges from 2 to 14hp/s instead of 2.5 to 17.5 hp.s

-Executioner damage ranges from 8% to 56% instead of 10% to 70%

-Self Repair takes 2.5 instead of 2.0s to heal you

-Stimpacks healing ranges from 3 to 21 instead of 4 to 28 hp per shift

-Toxic Blood duration now ranges from 3 to 9s instead of 2 to 14s

-Arcane power bullet damage ranges from 7 to 49 instead of 8 to 56hp

-Clip Magnet seek speed is now 20 instead of 30 degrees per second

-Assassinate bonus damage ranges from +3 to +15% instead of +3 to +21%


[BUG FIXES]

- Fixed a bug where clip size upgrades weren't showing properly in the HUD.

- Fixed Always on Top challenge not working

- Fixed a bug that caused cops to stand on top of cars

- Fixed a bug where the critical rage sound effect wasn't applied to shotguns

May the best reflexes win.

GSA now has a new and extremely OP mechanic called Critical Rage. Whenever you shoot an enemy you have a 3% chance to go crazy and start firing critical bullets. These bullets deal DOUBLE DAMAGE and for the next 2 seconds you will obliterate anything in front of you, so make those bullets count! Why was this added? Because it is just pure dopamine fun and feels incredible when it randomly kicks in.

Now, you might think this is some OP RNG BS... and that's what people said in playtesting too! But we fixed that with a very visible 1 second warning animation before you enter this state. If your opponents have good reflexes this is more than enough time for them to shift to safety and wait out your 2 seconds of fury. Of course, we all get these equally, and ultimately the players with the better reflexes win - either shifting to safety or pushing their advantage and landing those sweet, sweeeet crit hits.




The skill draft now contains BOOSTED skills. Boosted skills randomly appear in your skill draft and they appear in the most special colour of all - rainbow.

Boosted skills give you free skill points when you level them up. The later into the game it is, the more free points you get. If they appear on level 2 they'll give just +1 free point. Not bad. But if this occurs at level 11 then you'll get +4 points instead! This keeps farming relevant right until the end of the match, as every last level might boost you to victory.

More importantly however, boosted skills can go all the way up to level SIX, whereas normal skills are capped at level 3. Investing this many skill points into a single skill makes it extremely powerful, and it's been good fun playtesting them all to see how broken they get. You don't have to invest this many points of course, as you have other skills to level as well. But you have the option to take your boosted skill to the max and adapt the rest of your build to support it.

Now, hang on a second.. more OP RNG??? Not quite, because everyone gets boosted skills at the same levels. At the start of the match the server will decide which levels will be boosted, and all players get their boost option at the same time. Usually there are just 1 or 2 boosted skills per game.. but very rarely there can be 5 or even 6. For everyone. These rare matches are wild where everyone is extremely OP, potentially with 2x the amount of skill points as we'd normally get. High stakes indeed!




This version adds 13 new skills. Some of these have been automatically added to your account, others are further out in the skill tree and need to be unlocked. All of these skills are passives, which is what most people seem to prefer, and the extra options really make drafting interesting.

A few of these skills were inspired by Vampire Survivors, for example "Revenge Rockets" which spins bazookas around you and automatically fires them at enemies whenever you get hit.

• Revenge Rockets: 1/2/3/4/5/6 bazookas spin around you and automatically fire back at enemies whenever they shoot you.
  
• Beefcake: Gain +10/20/30/40/50/60 max hp.
  
• Executioner: Deal +10/20/30/40/50/60% damage against enemies with less than 50% health remaining.
  
• Stimpacks: Restore +4/8/12/16/20/24 hp per shift.
  
• Critical Rage: Increases the chance of entering critical rage by +33/67/100/133/167/200%.
  
• Shift Supply: Gives +1/2/3/4/5/6 bonus shift charges.
  
• Combo Killer: Increases the time you get between multi-kills from 3s to 4.5/6.0/7.5/9.0/10.5/12.0.
  
• Falling Inferno: Throws a free molotov whenever you cast a skill for 25/50/75/100/125/150% damage.
  
• Medical Supplies: All forms of loot heal you by 5/10/15/20/25/30 hp. Crates throw loot towards you.
  
• Flying Dagger: You can throw your knife 10/20/30/40/50/60 meters and for extra damage.
  
• Rambulance: Your vehicles drive faster, do more ramming damage, and heal you by 10/20/30/40/50/60 hp/s.
  
• Armed Robbery: Killing vendors has a chance to drop rare loot. XP, hearts and upgrades. Chance of upgrade is 5/10/15/20/25/30%.
  
• Acid Trail: You leave a trail of acid behind you that deals 10/20/30/40/50/60 hp/s damage to enemies inside it.
  

To help you earn the coins to unlock some of these new skills, there is a new system called Trophy Challenge. All 54 skills in the game have their own challenge, which is to finish a match with at least 6 trophies while using the skill. This can only be attempted for one skill at a time, which is determined by whatever skill you choose to guarantee shows up at the start of the match.

This system does a few things. If you don't feel like playing ranked mode but still want to have a meaningful goal to achieve, you can attempt a new trophy challenge. Just select a different skill between matches and try win 6 trophies! This system also encourages people to explore new skills, as there are 500 free coins for every unique trophy challenge you complete.




I looked at the metrics and saw that almost no one was playing in parties of 4. There were a lot of people in parties of 2 and 3 however. So to help consolidate our playerbase and get more full servers, there are no more 2 player duos or 4 player squads servers. These modes are now replaced with 3 player trios servers, so as to not split the playerbase. Of course, FFA still exists for the ultra competitive.


There are a few smaller features that make a really big difference.

Zombie Resurrection: All zombies respawn with 1 heart, meaning we only need to collect 3 instead of 4 to revive. This also means that you are GUARANTEED to get a heart for killing an enemy zombie too (as they will also spawn with 1 heart), making zombie farming in overtime more reliable.

18 Starting Skills: New accounts start with 18 skills instead of 6. This is a huge jump, 3x as many! All existing players have had these starting 18 skills added to their accounts for free too, including some of the brand new ones added this version.

Mini-Skill Descriptions: Every skill has been given a very short summary description, so that when drafting you can instantly get a general idea of what the skill does. Hover over it for the full description if you want more info. GSA is a fast-paced game, and sometimes you just need to make snap decisions.

FPS & Netcode Improvements: Apparently the game was spawning about 1000 particles from players on the other side of the map. Bit unnecessary! Removing this has really improved the performance.

Graphics and Bullet Feedback: I spent a day or so improving the bullet feedback. Nice juicy blood sound effects when your bullets hit, and good flashing effects too. It feels satisfying, and the unique sound effect actually helps know when your shots land off screen.

Ranked Mode Improvments: It's been 3 months now since ranked was introduced, and ranks keep getting higher! So I've added a new tier, and also adjusted the ranked algorithm to place a higher emphasis on raw skill instead of how many matches you've played. Also, a new ranked season is about to start on the 1st of the month, so now would be a great time to hop on and see how you go!





--- NEW CRITICAL RAGE MECHANIC ---

- Whenever you hit an enemy you have a 3% chance of entering a state of CRITICAL RAGE.

- In this state you will glow bright red and deal 2x weapon damage for the next 2 seconds.

- It takes 1 second to charge up, and other players see that you're about to go nuts, so they have a chance to take cover.


--- NEW SKILL BOOSTS IN THE DRAFT ---

- Boosted skills randomly appear in the skill draft, glowing rainbow. All players are given boosted skills at the same levels, randomly chosen by the server each match.

- Boosted skills start with extra skill points, and they are also able to go all the way up to level 6, instead of level 3, making them extremely powerful.


--- SKILL TREE CHANGES ---

- Rearranged the skill tree and added 12 new skills (see below).

- All skills have had their values tweaked slightly and go up to level 6 now (previously they went to level 4).

- New players start with 18 instead of 6 skills. All existing players have been given the inner 18 skills for free.

- Skill costs have increased, but daily challenges give far more skill coins.

- Skills now require a certain number of medals within that tree before you can unlock them. You can earn medals by playing skills in that tree.

- F2P players can now earn skill medals beyond level 10, they are no longer capped.

- The guaranteed skill once again works EVERY round, not 33% of matches. It will appear somewhere between levels 1 and 5.

- Every skill now has a "Trophy Challenge", which can be attempted for your guaranteed skill. If you get 6 trophies in game, you'll complete the challenge and get +500 skill coins.

- Skill builds now must have at least 12 passives and 6 actives at all times.


--- GENERAL CHANGES ---

- Kill coins are now called Skill coins.

- Every so often a crate will burst out an insane amount of skill coins.

- A big XP progress bar shows up the top of the screen showing your progress to next level.

- Hovering over skills now shows a shortened text description of what they do.

- Added a hotkey option to ping the map to allies. You'll need to set this yourself (default is X).

- Silver and gold upgrades from vendors now show the relative increases instead of absolute.

- Mild FPS performance improvements by reducing unnecessary particles.

- Improved the visuals and sound effects when you hit enemies.


--- RANKED MODE CHANGES ---

- When ranks reset each month, everyone's progress is rolled back 50%. But this is now also capped at 15 matches. This gives a more fair start for the month.

- Added new rank images, and added a new rank stage called "Immortal" from 6000 to 7999. Genetic God is now the final rank at 8000+.

- Tweaked the ranked algorithm to converge on your true skill level faster, rewarding skill more than grinding.


--- GAMEPLAY CHANGES ---

- Chemicals now cost $6,000 instead of $10,000.

- Weapon refunds now cost $1,000 instead of $2,000.

- Explosives no longer deal self damage.

- You can now carry 4 instead of 3 explosives.

- Civ/Cop multikills give bigger XP rewards. 200%/300%/350%/375% instead of 150%/200%/250%/300%

- Zombies always respawn with at least 1 heart piece, so we only need to collect 3 to revive.

- Hearts now give 20xp instead of $200 for survivors who pick them up.

- Toned down vehicle steering sensitivity, making cars easier to drive.


--- PERK CHANGES ---

- Skill lottery now starts you at level 2 instead of 3.

- Removed a few perks due to them being turned into skills instead.


--- 13 BRAND NEW SKILLS ---

- Beefcake: Gain +10/20/30/50/60 max hp.

- Stimpacks: Restore +4/8/12/16/20/24 hp per shift.

- Critical Rage: Increases the chance of entering critical rage by +33/67/100/133/167/200%.

- Shift Supply: Gives +1/2/3/4/5/6 bonus shift charges.

- Combo Killer: Increases the time you get between multi-kills from 3s to 4.5/6.0/7.5/9.0/10.5/12.0.

- Executioner: Deal +10/20/30/50/60% damage against enemies with less than 50% health remaining.

- Falling Inferno: Throws a free molotov whenever you cast a skill for 25/50/75/100/125/150% damage.

- Medical Supplies: All forms of loot heal you by 5/10/15/20/25/30 hp. Crates throw loot towards you.

- Flying Dagger: You can throw your knife 10/20/30/40/50/60 meters and for extra damage.

- Rambulance: Your vehicles drive faster, do more ramming damage, and heal you by 10/20/30/40/50/60 hp/s.

- Armed Robbery: Killing vendors has a chance to drop rare loot. XP, hearts and upgrades. Chance of upgrade is 5/10/15/20/25/30%.

- Revenge Rockets: 1/2/3/4/5/6 bazookas spin around you and automatically fire back at enemies whenever they shoot you.

- Acid Trail: You leave a trail of acid behind you that deals 10/20/30/40/50/60 hp/s damage to enemies inside it.


--- SKILL CHANGES ---

- Self Repair is once again simplified, and doesn't give bonus healing below 50%.

- Regeneration no longer affects your out of combat healing. Instead it just gives a steady continuous heal at all times.

- Smoke Bomb health per second now increases by level.

- Automatic Armor nerfed slightly, only protecting for 1s instead of 1.5s.

- Proximity Rounds now do 10hp per shot instead of 5, but it acquires charged shots slower.

- Arcane Power no longer boosts raw skill damage, but instead does more damage per shot. It also gets bonus bullet damage after throwing a grenade.

- Spike Trap deals 50% less spike damage, but now also makes players vulnerable to bullet damage for the next 3s.

- Manic Mechanic no longer increases driving speed, but gives more farm per car destroyed instead.

- Killer Cooldowns now also restores the ammo in your clip whenever you get a kill.

- Toxic Blood now also triggers when you explode cars, and has a longer duration.

- Critical Shifting renamed to Shift Attack, and it now applies to all shifts, not just the top 2.

- Clip Magnet no longer interacts with crates. Instead, it will make the bullets in your gun gradually gain seeking over time.

- Blade Fury will spin around you for 5s instead of 1s. You can burst the blades prematurely by casting it again.

- Shrapnel gives less grenade damage, but now has a chance to drop free grenades when you open crates.

- Energize renamed to Laser Scope. It continues to increase bullet speed and range.

- Shockwave no longer slows enemy projectiles. Instead it will heal you for every bullet frozen in the air.

- Venom Shot duration is now fixed at 2.0s, thus dealing more DPS at higher levels.

- Ignition Orb removed from the game. RIP.

Hey all!

This version tweaks skill drafting to make GSA play more like a roguelite.

The goal is to reduce repetitive matches by reducing the control we have over our builds. For example, the guaranteed skill now only appears in 33% of matches. This affects all players equally, and still lets us choose and use our favourite - but not every game. Most games we need to adapt to the draft and piece together a smart build as we play, which raises the skill ceiling.

Speaking of skill ceilings, it just got even higher! This is because in ranked mode rounds 1 and 2 now give +1 trophy each. This means that if you manage to win all 3 rounds you can get 12 trophies instead of 10, letting skillful players climb the ranks extra fast.

Next version will rework the perks system into a classes system, making it far easier to switch playstyles between games.

Enjoy!

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--- GENERAL CHANGES ---

- Added a reconnect button. This appears above the play button in purple, and lets you rejoin the last server you were in (useful if you d/c).

- If you leave a duos/squads server mid-game and rejoin, the server will try and put you back onto the old squad.

- Improved visual feedback whenever you hit an enemy by making their outline briefly flash white.


--- GAMEPLAY CHANGES ---

- The draft now only shows 2 skill options instead of 3.

- The guaranteed skill now only appears in 33% of matches.

- When you get a bonus skill point, this now jumps from level 0 to 2 instead of 1 to 3.

- All skill values have been rescaled slightly, so that levels 1 and 2 are a bit weaker, 3 is the same, and 4 is extra powerful.

- Level 4 skills now appear at levels 7/10/13/16/etc.

- Skill builds now require 15 skills instead of 12 (5 actives and 10 passives). If you had existing builds below 15, ring 1 skills will be automatically added to them (but you can change them of course).

- The victors of rounds 1 and 2 get +1 trophy instead of bonus health. This brings the max trophies you can earn per match up to 12.

- Expanded the size of red zone slightly to reduce player density in showdowns.

- Rare loot crates are now more likely to fall out in the open instead of in parkour spots.


--- WEAPON CHANGES ---

- Grenades do +5 damage

- Molotovs do +5 damage


--- NEW SKILL ---

- Parasites has been removed from the game. Instead we have a new passive skill called: "Proximity Rounds"

- Proximity Rounds: Adds high damage bullets to both of your guns. These bullets accumulate over time, but only when standing nearby enemy players.

- Max bullets charged: 3/6/9/15 with a charging time of 3/2.5/2.0/1.5s per bullet. You must be within 30m to begin charging.

- Charged bullets do +5hp damage (+10 for shotguns and snipers)


--- SKILL CHANGES ---

- Self Repair now gives +100% healing while you are below 50% health. Healing is now +15/25/35/55 instead of +30/40/50/70. Cooldown is 16s for all levels.

- Energize speed is now +5/10/15/25% instead of +10/15/20/25%

- Frenzy rpm is now +12/20/28/44% instead of +15/20/25/35%. Cooldown is now 22s for all levels instead of 20/19/18/16.

- Boots of Travel now kicks in after 1.5s for all levels, instead of 2/1.8/1.6/1.2

- Shrapnel damage boost now applies to vehicle explosions as well. Shrapnel molotov duration is now 2/4/6/10s instead of 2/3/4/6s

- Radiate impact damage is now 10/20/30/50 instead of 20/30/40/60, but cooldown is now 16s instead of 20/19/18/16s.

- Critical Shifting now has 5/10/15/25% damage instead of 8/11/14/20%. Duration is fixed at 1s for all levels instead of 0.8/0.9/1.0/1.2

- Cluster Bomb time between throws is now 1.4/1.2/1.0/0.6 instead of 1.3/1.2/1.1/0.9

- Firestorm now throws 2/3/4/6 instead of 3/4/5/7 fireballs, but it takes less time to shoot them all out (0.4 instead of 0.7s). Cooldown increased by 4s for all levels.

- Blade fury range is now 35m instead of 50m

- Killer cooldowns now reduces cooldowns by 20/40/60/100% instead of 35/40/65/95%

- Blade Fury cooldown is now 16/15/14/12s instead of 15 for all levels

- Blade Mail damage reduction is now -15/25/35/50% instead of -25/35/45/60%, but works at the same strength regardless of how empty your clip was (the description already gave this impression, now it just works this way)

- Mirror images now do 5/10/15/25 damage instead of 10/15/20/30% damage, but their health is now 20/40/60/100 instead of 20/30/40/60

- Hypnotic Army follower hp is now +20/40/60/100 instead of +30/40/50/70, and cooldown is fixed at 12 instead of 20/18/16/12

- Smoke Bomb duration is now 1.5/2.5/3.5/5.5 instead of 2/3/4/6 but healing rate is 12hp/s instead of 10hp/s

- Invis move speed is now +10/20/30/50% instead of +20/30/40/60%, but duration is now 7/14/21/35s instead of 8/12/16/24. Cooldown is now 15s at all levels instead of 20/18/16/12s

- Venom cooldown is now 20/19/18/16s instead of 15s for all levels. Venom seeking is higher, as is the time the trail stays on the ground.

- Clip Magnet seeking speed is now fixed at 20 degrees/s instead of 10/15/20/30 degrees.

- Clip Magnet no longer charges up the remaining bullets in your current magazine (which would get lost on reload). Instead it charges up 20/40/60/100% of both your held weapons

- Bullet Time seeking is now 10/20/30/50 instead of 10/15/20/30 degrees per second

- Phase Drifting speed buffed to 150/170/190/230% instead of 150/165/180/210%

MINOR TWEAKS
August 7th, 2023
Heyo, nothing too crazy this patch. The main change is buffing the TTK of some weapons, and repositioning the game info box to the top left of the screen.

Enjoy!

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--- GENERAL CHANGES ---

- Repositioned the game mode info HUD element to now appear up the top left of the screen

- Players can now only have 1 account on their SteamID (this won't affect 99% of players, but fixes an exploit)

- When someone wins a round, the DLC medallion now only shows for people who own the DLC

- Tutorial improvements


--- WEAPON CHANGES ---

- Buffed AK rpm from 400 to 450

- Buffed Ruger damage from 35 to 40, but reduced rpm from 90 to 80.

- SMGs and LMGs have slightly faster bullet speed.


--- SKILL CHANGES ---

- Firestorm projectiles are closer together, but fly a bit slower through the air

- Blade Fury blades now burst out after 1s instead of 1.5s


--- BUG FIXES ---

- Fixed a bug where the final 6 scoreboard would keep showing ranks even when people were playing casual mode

MMR is everything.

GSA now has a ranked mode, and as a competitive gamer I am pumped! Gene Shift Auto now finally provides a true challenge, and this gives meaning to every single mechanic in the game. Sure, before you could "beat" the game and win a match.. but could you do it consistently? Can you do it with the highest win rate possible? Ranked mode now provides this challenge and lets us put our skills to the test.




The quest for the Holy Grail begins.

When you load into a match, you can choose between Casual or Ranked mode. If you select ranked mode you'll be able to earn Trophies. Trophies are awarded at the end of the match based on your score. First place gets 10 trophies, second place gets 8, third gets 6, and so on.

After 5 placement matches you will be given a rating and a corresponding rank. Your rating is based on your AVERAGE TROPHIES PER MATCH. This means that if you place poorly in a game (or quit early) your rating will go down. This makes rating an actual measure of skill, rather than who has played the longest.

Having said that, someone who consistently averages 1st or 2nd place over 100 games is probably better than someone who by chance happens to win 1 match. So our ratings initially start a bit lower and will approach towards our true average as we demonstrate our ability to win games CONSISTENTLY.




The rating system is tied to the monthly leaderboards, where players can climb the ranks and see who can get the highest rating each month. When a new month starts, the previous month will be archived and winners will be immortalized in the previous month's leaderboards page.

Also, at the start of each month, everyone's rating will have a soft reset and be partially reduced. This soft reset allows new players to have a chance at the top spot, and also ensures that our ranks are up to date and reflect our skills in the current meta.




Of course, the most important part of any ranking system is showing off.

As your rating improves, so too will your rank. When your rating crosses over the next threshold you will get a new rank title and badge. Whenever you play a ranked match (not casual), this badge will show next to your name in the in-game scoreboards, letting everyone know who the real danger is.



As a final cool benefit, the game is now using the ranking technology to secretly determine player's skills behind the scenes, even when ranked mode is disabled. These hidden ratings will be useful to ensure balanced squads and potentially match making in the future.




Ranked mode is the big new feature that just dropped, but here are a few other smaller changes that have been released since the last major Steam announcement.

Stronger GTA Focus: There are new civilian missions, and a sense of exploration as you use vehicles to find them. We can also climb wanted levels much faster for those going a PvE farming strategy (is PvE the best way to win games? With ranks we can now find out!)

More Risk & Reward Mechanics: You now get bonus XP and cash for killing players during overtime, but this is the riskiest time to hunt for kills as if you die you can't revive. Likewise, supply drops have been buffed, but they now land just before overtime, increasing the risk.

Faster Gameplay: The game is just faster and crisper now. We move faster, especially during combat. This requires more skill to aim and lead targets. The TTK is also faster, and weapons are more differentiated.

More Features for F2P Players: Players without the DLC can now attempt 24 instead of 10 challenges from the challenge grid. Also, the ability to co-op with friends in survival mode is no longer restricted. Hardcore survival mode is also avaiable to F2P players.

Extra Powerful Lvl 4 Skills: It is now harder to take a skill up to max level of 4, but if you do it will extra powerful, as the 4th skill point is now worth double (as if it was level 5). You must get 10 skill points before you can take a skill up to max level though, so get farming!

Skill Balancing: With ranked mode, I needed to make sure the skills were ACTUALLY balanced, based on cold hard data. So I added a new stats tracking system to check the win rates and kill rates of each individual skill. It turned out that the passive weapon skills were mega OP, and many actives were underperforming (as they require more skill to use). So I've done the buffs and now the tricksy interesting skills are competitive.

There are a lot of other changes, small quality of life fixes, better graphics, more visceral level up and kill effects etc. There's too much to list but it's all available in the in-game changelogs.




Next version I will continue expanding the perks system and turn it into a full-fledged class system. By grouping the perks into classes we can buff the effects significantly while keeping them balanced. It will be easier than ever to switch between playstyles and live out your wildest warrior / assassin / mage / engineer / spy / outlaw fantasies.

Have fun getting ranked!
bencelot.