Summer Update!
Greetings, Captains.
We were finally able to defeat all the technical challenges and deployed a new patch for the game. You will find the details below.
Some of these changes may require additional fine turning. We welcome player feedback through CS tickets from the in-game bug reporter or on Discord
[h2]NEW AND IMPROVED GAME MODE: CERES AWAKENS (AVAILABLE FOR A LIMITED TIME)[/h2]
Some of you may remember the “Ceres Awakens” event we did for PC a couple of years ago. By popular demand, we’re bringing the game mode back with a few improvements.
Ceres Awakens will run through the end of July. For more information, please visit the Ceres Awakens announcement.
[h3]Now Available on PlayStation®4[/h3]
The first time we tried Ceres Awakens, we found some tech issues that limited it to PC only. This time around we were able to solve the issues, so now our PS4 Captains can also play the game mode!
[h3]Faster gameplay and a new boost[/h3]
This game mode is intended to be frantic and fast-paced, but the frequency of tech cache spawns was too slow and the duration of the buffs was too short, so players didn’t really take advantage of the caches.
We decided to have a chaotic bombardment of tech caches and extended the length of buffs so that you can keep the action going if you are picking them up regularly.
We also wanted to add something new, so we included a rapid-fire buff to the list of possible tech caches.
[h3]Now with bots![/h3]
We also added the ability to have the games fill with bots to help get matches quicker. The bots will not go for Tech caches, so if you are in a game with bots make sure someone on your team is picking them up.
Let us know what you think, and how else we can make this mode more fun.
[h2]GAME IMPROVEMENTS[/h2]
[h3]Better AI Bots [/h3]
We know that the current bots don’t help as much as we want at times, so we are looking at ways to make them feel like contributing members of the team.
We found that bots were not using their modules in the most effective way, so we created new rules and improved the “thinking” of the bots so they can better in deciding which modules to use in any given battle scenario.
There is much more we want to do to improve the AI and decision making abilities of our bots, but this should give them more tools to be a threat. Let us know what you think, we welcome player feedback.
[h3]Improved “Proving Grounds” mode - Better PvE gameplay [/h3]
We wanted to make Proving Grounds a more challenging mode of PvE gameplay. These matches will now feature a 6 vs 8 format: your team size is now limited to 6 players, but you will face an enemy team of 8 bots.
This team size change combined with our better bots should make these matches a bit more challenging.
It’s important to note that Proving Grounds matches are often one player and bots vs a team of bots. However, you can join as a squad if you want to play with other humans in your team.
[h3]Artillery Cruiser - Improved Siege Mode[/h3]
Siege mode has been a rarely used module for two reasons. First, it didn’t do anything that couldn’t be done better with other modules. Second, it was also too easy to miss as the projectile is very slow-moving and its area of effect didn’t help if it never exploded.
For these reasons, we decided to add proximity detonation so that it could hit more consistently. Additionally, we increased the AOE slightly and increased the damage to be competitive. We will be watching how this performs to see if the changes work as intended.
[h3]Artillery Cruiser - Improved Damage Auto-beams[/h3]
Damage Auto-beams were underperforming so we decided to give them a boost. We also decided that the duration needed to be reduced so that you have to be more deliberate when you use it.
The cooldown was also reduced so it is available more often per encounter. Again, we will watch how this performs to ensure we didn’t go too far.
[h3]Rebalanced Assault Blink Warp[/h3]
We have received feedback about the Assault Blink Warp being a bit too strong, so we wanted to pull it back just a bit. We didn’t want to just reduce damage and make it useless, so we reduced enough that you need to either boost the damage or soften up the target in order to use it for an execution.
While investigating this issue, we also found that if you were touching the target when using the module, you sometimes won’t hit. We implemented a fix for this as well.
Hit detection should now trigger their starting point with more consistency for those times when you are touching your target at the beginning of the warp.
[h3]Stronger Stasis Auto-beams [/h3]
We’ve also heard that the Assault Blink Warp was hard to counter if the enemy was good at it. So, we decided to strengthen the stasis auto-beams so they could be used to counter the assault blink warp tactic.
This won’t help you if the enemy sneaks up on you, but if you see them coming this can help keep them out of ABW range for a bit longer.
[h3]Improved Weapon Breaker - now affects healing weapons[/h3]
Another long-standing concern has been the effectiveness of the “heal-ball” strategy. To give players another tool to combat this, we decided to add a healing debuff to Weapon Breaker missiles so that it will affect healing beams as well.
[h2]MARKET IMPROVEMENTS[/h2]
[h3]Bundles Filtering[/h3]
It has always been difficult to find what you want in the market bundles tab, as all the bundles are listed out with no real sorting or filtering options available.
We decided to add more filtering options to help you find what you are looking for. The previous functionality of filtering by either Captain Vanity or Ship Vanity still works as before, but now includes subfilters for each group.
[h3]“Limited” Tag On Seasonal Items [/h3]
We have always had seasonal items in the market that are only available during certain times of the year. This hasn’t been as obvious due to our releases being very spread out. In the future, items will start leaving and entering the market more regularly.
In order to communicate to players what items have limited availability, we added a “Limited” tag to show which items are only available for a limited time.
[h2]BUG FIXES[/h2]
[h3]PC - Global Chat[/h3]
There has been a long-standing issue on PC where if you queue for a match immediately, then open the chat window, it would fail to join Global or language-specific chat rooms. We have changed this so that it only restricts joining chat rooms if a match has already been found.
[h2]PC - Includes the previous patch[/h2]
Due to some unforeseen issues, we were only able to push the previous patch to PS4. Please see the previous patch notes to see the changes from that update.
https://www.greybox.com/dreadnought/en/news/patch-notes-release-21f/
[h2]A FINAL NOTE ON BALANCE AND GAME MODE CHANGES[/h2]
As we said at the beginning, some of these changes may require additional fine-tuning.
We welcome player feedback through CS tickets from the in-game bug reporter or on Discord
As always, many thanks for playing our game. We’re looking forward to seeing you in battle!
Ray Dog and the Engineers of Sinley Bay
We were finally able to defeat all the technical challenges and deployed a new patch for the game. You will find the details below.
Some of these changes may require additional fine turning. We welcome player feedback through CS tickets from the in-game bug reporter or on Discord
[h2]NEW AND IMPROVED GAME MODE: CERES AWAKENS (AVAILABLE FOR A LIMITED TIME)[/h2]
Some of you may remember the “Ceres Awakens” event we did for PC a couple of years ago. By popular demand, we’re bringing the game mode back with a few improvements.
Ceres Awakens will run through the end of July. For more information, please visit the Ceres Awakens announcement.
[h3]Now Available on PlayStation®4[/h3]
The first time we tried Ceres Awakens, we found some tech issues that limited it to PC only. This time around we were able to solve the issues, so now our PS4 Captains can also play the game mode!
[h3]Faster gameplay and a new boost[/h3]
This game mode is intended to be frantic and fast-paced, but the frequency of tech cache spawns was too slow and the duration of the buffs was too short, so players didn’t really take advantage of the caches.
We decided to have a chaotic bombardment of tech caches and extended the length of buffs so that you can keep the action going if you are picking them up regularly.
We also wanted to add something new, so we included a rapid-fire buff to the list of possible tech caches.
- Increased frequency of tech cache spawning to 3 every 30 seconds.
- Increased length of buffs from 20 seconds to 30 seconds.
- Added a rapid-fire buff to the list of randomized buffs (it will increase the fire rate by 40%).
[h3]Now with bots![/h3]
We also added the ability to have the games fill with bots to help get matches quicker. The bots will not go for Tech caches, so if you are in a game with bots make sure someone on your team is picking them up.
- Added the ability for bots to fill slots to help reduce queue times.
- Minimum team size is 6.
- Recruit - Max bots 10, Min players 2.
- Veteran - Max bots 6, Min players 6
- Legendary - Max Bots 2, Min players 10
Let us know what you think, and how else we can make this mode more fun.
[h2]GAME IMPROVEMENTS[/h2]
[h3]Better AI Bots [/h3]
We know that the current bots don’t help as much as we want at times, so we are looking at ways to make them feel like contributing members of the team.
We found that bots were not using their modules in the most effective way, so we created new rules and improved the “thinking” of the bots so they can better in deciding which modules to use in any given battle scenario.
There is much more we want to do to improve the AI and decision making abilities of our bots, but this should give them more tools to be a threat. Let us know what you think, we welcome player feedback.
- Improved bots so they can and will use their modules.
[h3]Improved “Proving Grounds” mode - Better PvE gameplay [/h3]
We wanted to make Proving Grounds a more challenging mode of PvE gameplay. These matches will now feature a 6 vs 8 format: your team size is now limited to 6 players, but you will face an enemy team of 8 bots.
This team size change combined with our better bots should make these matches a bit more challenging.
It’s important to note that Proving Grounds matches are often one player and bots vs a team of bots. However, you can join as a squad if you want to play with other humans in your team.
[h3]Artillery Cruiser - Improved Siege Mode[/h3]
Siege mode has been a rarely used module for two reasons. First, it didn’t do anything that couldn’t be done better with other modules. Second, it was also too easy to miss as the projectile is very slow-moving and its area of effect didn’t help if it never exploded.
For these reasons, we decided to add proximity detonation so that it could hit more consistently. Additionally, we increased the AOE slightly and increased the damage to be competitive. We will be watching how this performs to see if the changes work as intended.
- Projectiles now detonate within 300m proximity.
- Area of effect from 700m to 850m.
- Damage changes
- T1 from 4000 to 5000 per shot.
- T2 from 3250 to 5000 per shot
- T3 from 3200 to 6250 per shot - Numer of shots from 5 to 4.
- T4 from 3335 to 7500 per shot - Number of shots from 6 to 4.
- T5 from 3430 to 8750 per shot - Number of shots from 7 to 4.
- T1 from 4000 to 5000 per shot.
[h3]Artillery Cruiser - Improved Damage Auto-beams[/h3]
Damage Auto-beams were underperforming so we decided to give them a boost. We also decided that the duration needed to be reduced so that you have to be more deliberate when you use it.
The cooldown was also reduced so it is available more often per encounter. Again, we will watch how this performs to ensure we didn’t go too far.
- T4
- Active time reduced from 80 to 50.
- Cooldown decreased from 45 to 35.
- Increased damage to 2100dps
- Active time reduced from 80 to 50.
- T5
- Active time reduced from 90 to 60.
- Cooldown decreased from 40 to 30.
- Reduced refire time to 0.5 and refire cooldown to 1.0 to be consistent across tiers.
- Increased damage to 2800dps
- Active time reduced from 90 to 60.
[h3]Rebalanced Assault Blink Warp[/h3]
We have received feedback about the Assault Blink Warp being a bit too strong, so we wanted to pull it back just a bit. We didn’t want to just reduce damage and make it useless, so we reduced enough that you need to either boost the damage or soften up the target in order to use it for an execution.
While investigating this issue, we also found that if you were touching the target when using the module, you sometimes won’t hit. We implemented a fix for this as well.
- Assault Blink Warp has reduced damage
- T3 - No Change
- T4 - Damage reduced from 15000 to 14000
- T5 - Damage reduced from 20000 to 18000
- T3 - No Change
Hit detection should now trigger their starting point with more consistency for those times when you are touching your target at the beginning of the warp.
[h3]Stronger Stasis Auto-beams [/h3]
We’ve also heard that the Assault Blink Warp was hard to counter if the enemy was good at it. So, we decided to strengthen the stasis auto-beams so they could be used to counter the assault blink warp tactic.
This won’t help you if the enemy sneaks up on you, but if you see them coming this can help keep them out of ABW range for a bit longer.
- T3
- 1 beam (no change)
- Refire time 2s (from 4.5s)
- Effect duration 1s (from 3.5s)
- Range 1500m (no change)
- 1 beam (no change)
- T4
- 2 beams (from 1 beam)
- Refire time 1.5s (from 3.5s)
- Effect duration 1.5s (from 3.5s)
- Range 1650m (from 1500m)
- 2 beams (from 1 beam)
- T5
- 3 beams (from 2 beams)
- Refire time 1s (from 2.5s)
- Effect duration 1.5s (from 5s)
- Range 1800m (from 1500m)
- 3 beams (from 2 beams)
[h3]Improved Weapon Breaker - now affects healing weapons[/h3]
Another long-standing concern has been the effectiveness of the “heal-ball” strategy. To give players another tool to combat this, we decided to add a healing debuff to Weapon Breaker missiles so that it will affect healing beams as well.
- Weapon breaker debuff now reduces healing weapons.
[h2]MARKET IMPROVEMENTS[/h2]
[h3]Bundles Filtering[/h3]
It has always been difficult to find what you want in the market bundles tab, as all the bundles are listed out with no real sorting or filtering options available.
We decided to add more filtering options to help you find what you are looking for. The previous functionality of filtering by either Captain Vanity or Ship Vanity still works as before, but now includes subfilters for each group.
- You can now filter by more item types in the Market Bundles tab. This will need a usability pass so feedback is appreciated.
[h3]“Limited” Tag On Seasonal Items [/h3]
We have always had seasonal items in the market that are only available during certain times of the year. This hasn’t been as obvious due to our releases being very spread out. In the future, items will start leaving and entering the market more regularly.
In order to communicate to players what items have limited availability, we added a “Limited” tag to show which items are only available for a limited time.
- Added Limited tag for seasonal or short-term promotional items.
[h2]BUG FIXES[/h2]
[h3]PC - Global Chat[/h3]
There has been a long-standing issue on PC where if you queue for a match immediately, then open the chat window, it would fail to join Global or language-specific chat rooms. We have changed this so that it only restricts joining chat rooms if a match has already been found.
- You can now join global chat and language chat rooms while queued for a match. It will only fail if you found a match already.
[h2]PC - Includes the previous patch[/h2]
Due to some unforeseen issues, we were only able to push the previous patch to PS4. Please see the previous patch notes to see the changes from that update.
https://www.greybox.com/dreadnought/en/news/patch-notes-release-21f/
[h2]A FINAL NOTE ON BALANCE AND GAME MODE CHANGES[/h2]
As we said at the beginning, some of these changes may require additional fine-tuning.
We welcome player feedback through CS tickets from the in-game bug reporter or on Discord
As always, many thanks for playing our game. We’re looking forward to seeing you in battle!
Ray Dog and the Engineers of Sinley Bay