Dreadnought News

Greetings! I’m Matt Witter, a senior designer at Six Foot. I wanted to introduce myself, share a few upcoming balance changes and give everyone a bit of insight into how we approach combat balance within Dreadnought.

Combat balancing is best accomplished by making data-driven decisions, then implementing those decisions in a clean, methodical way. You don’t want to approach it haphazardly—like a bull in a fine china shop. This can create an unbalanced system with long-lasting negative effects on a game’s balance, economy and progression. For Dreadnought’s combat, our goal is to have a system that offers counterplay (where one strategy can effectively counter another) and makes sure that no one strategy becomes the “winning” strategy. This can be a fine line to walk as we strive to offer a range of ship loadout options and minimize the chance that you’ll make a bad loadout choice.

Any change to the combat system takes a variety of data and factors into account. For example, take officer briefings. Issues are generally discovered via our QA team, in our internal playtests or by our amazing community. We start by collecting data on the officer briefing to identify problems. Is it too strong? Too weak? Does it encourage a negative playstyle? Some data points that we collect about an officer briefing might include how many players use it, what modules it’s used with, and the average win rate and score of players who use it (to name a few). From there, we can begin to determine if the officer briefing is balanced—or if it needs more work.

Now for a more specific example: the “heal ball.” We dubbed this strategy after noticing that it was possible to use a combination of modules and officer briefings to create endless health and energy regen. After diving into our data, we discovered that a core piece of this problem stemmed from an officer briefing called Adrenaline Shot. In combination with other healing modules, Adrenaline Shot could make tactical cruisers extremely hard to defeat. To stay competitive, a player on the receiving end of an opponent’s heal ball had no choice but to create their own. Our goal in this situation was not to prevent the heal ball strategy, but to reduce its effectiveness—and ensure that other strategies could adequately counter it.

This brings me to some of the changes that you’ll see very soon. After looking at Adrenaline Shot, we sat down and discussed other officer briefings, how balanced they were as well as the roles we wanted them to play. The first thing we found was that some officer briefings had values that varied across ships. One example is Desperate Measures. We noticed that some ships activated this officer briefing at 50% remaining health, while others saw it activate all the way down at 12%. With the Command the Colossal update, this officer briefing will fire at 25% for all ships. We look forward to bringing similar changes to Survival Instinct, Get My Good Side and Nerves of Steel.

We also found a few officer briefings that did not create the intended gameplay experience. Tip the Scales is a prime example. Our data indicated that players rarely used this briefing, which we realized didn’t complement any ship loadout in a meaningful way—so we’ve added Last Resort in its place. Last Resort will activate when your ship reaches 0 energy. While active, you’ll receive a 15% reduced reload time and a 10% boost to your rate of fire. However, these bonuses go away once you gain 1 point of energy. Overall, we think this change will encourage a more tactical playstyle, and in combination with other briefings and modules, it will present an interesting option when building your ship loadouts.

As you might expect, we’re very excited as we progress toward Steam. We have a lot in the works for Dreadnought that we’ll discuss down the road, like better defining the roles of individual ships by adjusting their movement and weapon properties. Several of the weapon ranges have been adjusted with the Command the Colossal update. This is a small design step in our larger plan that will be rolling out across several updates. Our goal is to *further* define roles and play styles *offered by your ship selection* As you increase in tier these play styles and roles will be more critical to your success on the battlefield.

There are plenty of balance changes coming to the game with our launch on Steam, and we hope that you’re as excited as we are. Our team is always listening, and we cannot wait to get your feedback once the game is live.

Until next time!

Enjoy a brand new hangar and front end UI, new audio and SFX, and tons of balance improvements! This update will be available when Dreadnought launches on Steam!



New Hangar and Front End UI

Front End
The front end user interface received an entire overhaul with all screens being replaced with a clean, updated style.

Our goals for the new UI were to:

• Condense information for easier navigation and readability
  
  
• Display Contracts, Career Progression, and Notifications cleanly and easily
  
  
• Improve the performance when navigating the Hangar
  
  
• Build a consistent user experience across both PC & PS4 platforms
  
  
• Reduce clutter
  

Loadouts

• Manufacturer Trees and Tech Trees have been redesigned to more clearly display unlockable Ships and Modules
  
  
• Module stats are more clearly and accurately displayed
  
  
• Improved lighting for more accurate representation of vanity items
  
  
• Starter ship customization items have been added for all players to edit the look of their fleet with basic options
  

  If you have previously purchased any of these items, refunds will be issued shortly after maintenance
  
  The items added for all ships are: Hippomechanus Emblem, Oberon Emblem, Dead Man's Hand Emblem, Pan Colonial Coating, Gremlin Coating, Dead Man's Hand Coating, Ram Decal, Ram (Black) Decal, Dead Man's Hand Decal, Slaver Ring (Dark) Decal, and Slaver Ring (White) Decal.
  

Market Makeover
The Market layout has been overhauled, and has five sections:

• Featured: This section is a quick glance to see new or popular items in the Market. The large section will also populate into the home screen for your convenience
  
  
• Currency: Whether you need to pick up more GP, Credits, or are looking to exchange your Ship XP for Free XP - the Currency panel contains it all!
  
  
• Bundles: Stop in here to see all of the different Collections and bundles in one spot.Sort by Captain Gear or Ship Items
  
  
• Elite Status: Your go to location to grab the Elite Status Membership and start earning bonuses for you and your team.
  
  
• Hero Ships: Browse the Tier II, Tier III and Tier IV Hero Ship offerings with new preview opportunities.
  
  
• All new items now have an icon image and we're working on updating the past ones
  
  
• Items in a bundle are now preview-able
  
  
• New Market Item Category: Retrofits!
  

  Retrofits are a collection of custom ship parts that are usable on any other ship of the same manufacturer and ship class.

• Added a new GP pack at the highest bonus amount of GP
  
  
• GP packs now show their base amount + bonus amount
  
  
• Credit purchases have been rebalanced into packages that show their base amount + bonus amount
  
  
• Lots of new and returning items!
  

New Hangar

• Hangar visuals have been updated and optimized
  
  
• New ambient audio and Hangar music
  
  
• Players can now rotate 360° around their ships
  
  
• Updated Captain Customization interface
  

Updated Social and Statistics

• Easily manage your Squad, Friends Online, Incoming Requests
  
  
• Compare your stats against your friends
  
  
• View detailed stats about your time in Dreadnought, including what Ribbons you have received and criteria for the ones you have not
  

New Audio
The following areas have received new audio treatments and SFX updates.

Main Menu

• Updated all UI button sound effects
  
• New Login Music and Menu Music

Modules

• Afterburners
  
• Tractor Beam
  
• Scrambler Pulse

Ships

• All Ship Thrusters Updated
  
• Non-Player Ship Thrusters removed
  
• Idle Engine audio removed

Weapons:
Artillery Cruiser

• Updated Bolt Gun Turret
  
• Updated Heavy Particle Cannon
  
• Updated Heavy Telsa Cannon
  
• Updated Light Flak Turret
  
• Updated Light Machine Gun
  
• Updated Particle Turret

Dreadnought

• Updated Ballistic Cannon
  
• Updated Heavy Flak Turrets
  
• Updated Heavy Mortar Turrets
  
• Updated Heavy Plasma Cannon
  
• Updated Plasma Cannon

Tactical Cruiser

• Updated Healing Beam
  
• Updated Attack Beam

Destroyer

• Updated Ballistic Cannon
  
• Updated Flak Turret
  
• Updated Light Particle Turret
  
• Updated Repeater Turret
  
• Updated Rocket Turret
  
• Updated Light Machine Gun

AI

• Updated Cannons

Adaptive Music System
Brand-new adaptive audio system changes dynamically to increase tempo and intensity based on player health, player score, and enemy / allied proximity. Feel the rush of drums as you make a bombing run and relax a bit when there are no visible enemies on radar.

• New Music Score for Orbital and End of Match screens

UI

• Updated all UI sound effects in-match
  
• Updated player alerts and notifications
  
• Complete update of in-game sound mixing and levels to highlight new audio treatments and SFX improvements.
  

Player Queue
A screen may now be present upon logging in if servers are at capacity and will place players in a Player Queue for a period of time while server capacity opens up. A brief, accidental disconnect should not result in the player re-entering this queue.

Russian and Simplified Chinese Added
Russian and Simplified Chinese are now available as language selections in-game! Language may be changed using the top right drop-down on the PC Launcher.

New and Improved Launcher
The updated launcher now displays multiple panels for easier visibility into the latest news, events, and info about Dreadnought!

Updated Anti-Cheat
Added 'Easy Anti-Cheat' for better cheat detection!


Officer Briefings
Glass Cannon - +20% damage if at 100% health, normal damage if
Desperate Measures – Now triggered at 25% remaining health. Previous values were based on ship class, 25% is now consistent across all classes.

Get My Good Side - All ships gain .0025 energy per HP when hit on the sides. Previously some triggered when hit on the rear.

Nerves of Steel - Standardized across ship types to a consistent 200% increase effect duration from 0.5 to 1.0

Tip the Scales is now known as Last Resort - Reload speed is increased by 15% and rate of fire is increased by 10% while energy is 0.

Survival Instinct - Health threshold is now 25%, down from 50%.

Destruction Cascade - Increased duration to 20 seconds, up from 10 seconds.

Weapon Ranges Updated
A number of primary weapon ranges have been normalized, providing a progression that forces ships to engage closer to their optimal range as damage increases each tier.

Akula Vektor Corvette Close / Medium / Long range values updated to:

Tier III - 1900 / 2400 / 3400
Tier IV - 1600 / 2400 / 2900
Tier V - 1200 / 2400 / 2400

Jupiter Arms Artillery Cruiser Close / Medium / Long range values updated to:

Tier III - 7500 / 7500 / 7500
Tier IV - 8000 / 8000 / 8000
Tier V - 8500 / 8500 / 8500

Jupiter Arms Destroyer Close / Medium / Long range values updated to:

Tier III - 1200 / 2400 / 7000

Dev Note: These values are now similar to all other ships in the Jupiter Arms Destroyer line

Oberon Tactical Cruiser Close / Medium / Long range values updated to:

Tier III - 1200 / 2400 / 5000

Dev Note: These values are now similar to all other ships in the Oberon Tactical Cruiser line

Oberon Dreadnought Close / Medium / Long range values updated to:

Tier III, IV, V - 2400 / 3600 / 7000

Oberon Corvette Close / Medium / Long range values updated to:

Tier III - 1200 / 2400 / 4500
Tier IV - 1200 / 2400 / 4500
Tier V - 1200 / 2400 / 5000

Tweaks & Adjustments

• Multiple tool tips have been updated to accurately reflect the intended damage, cooldown, reload times, and duration
  
• Module and Officer Briefing descriptions have been updated to more accurately convey their use
  
• Players can no longer deploy more than 2 Repair Pods at a time
  
• Tier-III Light Particle Turrets (Destroyer Secondary Weapon) now deals 260 damage per projectile, up from 120
  
• "Drain" modules (e.g. Drain Torpedo or Drain Missile) now appropriately apply their effects to shielded Corvettes
  
• Disruptor Autobeams now appropriately apply their effects to shielded Corvettes
  
• The Energy Wheel is now usable while affected by the Scrambled effect
  
• Weaponbooster Pulse emits two additional pulses, matching in-game documentation
  
• Tactical Cruiser Autobeams modules will prioritize human allies over AI allies if both are in range
  

Here are some highlights, the full list of bug fixes is posted here.

• Resolved an issue preventing players to use extra buttons on their mouse
  
• Resolved an issue where the Tech Tree would become unresponsive after purchasing modules
  
• Anti-Nuke Lasers now prioritize destroying nuke projectiles over missiles and torpedoes if multiple projectile types can be targeted
  
• Players can now use the Energy Wheel when Scrambled
  
• The "10 Player Kill Streak" ribbon now properly triggers when 10 players are killed in a row
  
• Using other modules now interrupts the duration of Emergency Evac
  
• Disruptor Pulse now interrupts an enemy's active Weaponbooster Pulse
  
• The link between a ship and an owned Control Point is now appropriately broken when the Control Point is captured by the enemy team in Conquest Mode
  
• Fixed issues with Drain abilities not working on Corvettes while shields are on
  
• Fixed issue with Purge Beam not working on Targets with shields on
  
• Fixed issue with Disruptor Autobeams not working on Targets with shields on
  
• Adjusted multiple modules tooltip values to match in-game functionality
  
• Adjusted Corvette's capture rate to 33% in the Conquest mode, down from 50%
  
• Shield VFX no longer appear on cloaked ships
  
• Resolved a Team Deathmatch related crash that impacted AMD-based PCs
  
• Resolved an issue where players who disconnected during a match and reconnected after the match ended would unable to join their next game
  
• Improved stability to prevent performance drops when respawning
  
• Improved performance and framerate consistency when transitioning from Orbit in an Onslaught match
  
• Improved loading times when joining the match
  
• Module descriptions have been updated and appear as intended
  
• Changing preset Graphic Settings now appropriately update Advanced Settings to match
  
• Audio volumes now react in real-time as their values are adjusted
  
• Resetting Graphic setting to "Default" will no longer affect changes in the control scheme
  
• Visuals and UI respond to changes in Graphics settings more consistently
  

View the full list of fixed bugs here!

With the launch of the Command the Colossal update imminent, here's some answers to common questions we anticipate regarding Dreadnought's upcoming maintenance and release.




> Why is my Dreadnought launcher black/not working?
The non-Steam version of Dreadnought will no longer be usable once the game comes to Steam. Players with the "old" version of the launcher from our time in Beta will need to delete the game and download the Steam version once Dreadnought is available.

> Will I be able to play Dreadnought without a Steam account once the Command The Colossal update is live?
No. Once Dreadnought is released on Steam, PC players will be unable to play without a connected Steam account. PS4 players do not need a Steam account to continue enjoying Dreadnought.

> Do I need to download the game all over again when it comes out on Steam?
Yes you will. Many of our back-end services and tools have been updated in such a way that the previous version of Dreadnought is incompatible with these improvements. By being on Steam however, we are able to greatly reduces the initial download file of the game and increase the download speed of updates!

> Why are you taking the game down for multiple days?
In order to provide the best possible experience for our players, and to bring both the PC and PS4 platforms to feature parity, we are deploying new back-end systems and tools. In order to transition to this new and improved environment, Dreadnought servers will be offline for multiple days prior to the release of the Command The Colossal update. For the most up-to-date info on how this extended maintenance is progressing, follow us on Twitter or check our forums!

> What happens to my elite status time when the game is down?
We will be re-granting elite status time equal to the number of days we are offline a few days after Dreadnought servers come back online. We expect some launch day jitters and may experience minor service instability during the first few days. Once all services appear stable, all players who have logged in to Dreadnought during the two months prior to launch will get a special "thank you" reward of 7-Days Elite Status time. This 7 Days is on top of any lost Elite Status time re-granted as a result of our extended maintenance.



> My Facebook log-in credentials don't work anymore!
Facebook log-in integration is no longer present in Dreadnought. Don't worry, your account is safe! You can reset your password here using the email address associated with your Facebook account. After that you will be able to log into your Dreadnought account using that new password. If you have any issues with this or need assistance, reach out to our Customer Support team for help!

> How do I link my existing Dreadnought account?
If you played the PC version of Dreadnought BEFORE its release on Steam, simply install the Steam client and download Dreadnought here, once the game is available. Launch the game through Steam and log in using your same Grey Box account info on the 'LINK EXISTING ACCOUNT' half of the new Dreadnought launcher. That's it! Any time you launch the game again your Grey Box account will be already signed in and linked to the Steam account you were signed into at the time.

You can unlink your Steam account from your Grey Box account at any time by visiting this Account Settings page.

>I created a new account on Steam and tried logging in to Greybox.com but don't know my password!
New users who filled out the 'CREATE NEW ACCOUNT' section of the Dreadnought Steam launcher are given a temporary Grey Box password. You can reset this here by entering the email address you input when first launching Dreadnought on Steam. If you have any issues with this or need assistance, our Customer Support team is standing by to help!

> I got a code from a streamer/giveaway/pack-in. How to redeem it?
Codes that are "five five five" (XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX) are redeemed on Steam. From the Steam client select the 'Games' top menu dropdown and choose 'Activate A Product On Steam.' Then enter your code!

Codes granted via older promotions or from Dreadnought's time in Beta (typically in a XXXX-XXXX-XX format) are still redeemed on your account management page.



> Why is there no Steam achievements or Steam friends visible in-game?
More robust integration with Steam services should come with a future update. Our focus was on getting the game in the best possible state to launch a polished game.

Dreadnought will support Steam trading cards, emotes, and badges at launch, however, so go out and collect 'em all!

> Is the game still in beta or in early access on Steam?
Neither! With the move to Steam, Dreadnought is officially released. We will share more info on the exciting game updates we have planned once we have crossed this milestone.

>Now that Dreadnought is out of beta on PC, will I get my Founder's Pack elite status?

Elite Status as part of owning a PC Founder's Pack will be granted a few days after launch at the same time as the thank you rewards for our extended maintenance time. We want to avoid any issues associated with launch day preventing you from enjoying your time.

If we didn't answer your question, feel free to reach out to us on Twitter, PM a Community Manager on Discord, or [url=https://www.weibo.com/p/1006066524714948

!