This patch is focusing on fixes, balance, and improvements.
We're currently in the process of switching the VOIP service, which should fix all the existing issues and prevent new ones in the future. At the moment though, it had to be disabled to finish the setup. Once done, there won't be a need for a new patch, just a quick server restart, so no downtime. Shouldn't take more than a few days.
Just to get some things out of the way: there won’t be a January community devlog or a Q&A in this post. There’s enough to read through as-is! If you have something you’d like to ask the devs, head over to our
Discord and check out #announcements for a link to a submission form.
[h2]
CHANGELOG & QA NOTES[/h2]
Some BackstoryThe ability to ignite containers in order to create an explosion, using the exploding types of ammo (such as Cluster Bombs, Fire Bombs, etc), or resources which can also explode (such as Lava Fuel), is a mechanic that dates back to the time we released the Volcanic Content Patch. Initially, it was designed as a way of countering War Walkers which were loaded with explosive ammunition, but somewhere along the way, creative Players figured out ways to weaponize this.
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
How it Works, What We’ve ChangedAlthough this mechanic will remain in the game, we have once again done a new rebalance pass, optimized and improved the visual effects, and made sure that there is at least one effective counter against them.
The way the mechanic currently works: explosive ammunition or ignitable resources can be detonated if inside a container. The amount of resources plays a major role on the achievable damage output, although it is limited to an extent, for obvious performance and balance reasons. When a container is severely damaged with fire damage, it will eventually catch on fire, and be ready to detonate all the bombs and other ammo inside (which can also cause gas to spill out of the container), and create an explosion damaging anything in its proximity, as well as possibly setting off more detonations if containers with explosives are nearby.
When a container is set to detonate, it’s possible to extinguish the fire, and prevent the detonation altogether.
[h2]
GAMEPLAY[/h2]
-New mechanic addition: It’s now possible to track enemy Poaching Huts, which temporarily reveals the location of other Poaching Huts owned by an individual, or a clan in the Oasis. It will only reveal Poaching Huts owned by the clan you tracked. Greed never pays, Nomads.
-Mechanic rebalance: Ignition mechanic (also known as improvised bombs) has been rebalanced. The general effectiveness of these improvised explosives has been reduced. The time to ignite and detonate explosive materials inside containers has been increased.
Small containers are the easiest to fuse, but also the easiest to extinguish. Large containers are harder to fuse, but also harder to extinguish with water streams. The time window to ignite explosive materials inside Walkers has been reduced, but it’s harder to fuse them. Bigger containers and constructions in general are much harder to chain-detonate.
-Ignition mechanic has been updated to also include gas clouds spilling out of containers when they are affected by nearby explosions, both inside the same container, and from outside. All types of gas should work here.
-Added the ability to extinguish containers which are going to explode due to extreme fire damage. Hose station water stream can now extinguish the flames on an ignited container, if used in time.
It is also possible to pour water on containers which have explosive materials inside, which will shield them from incoming fire damage which would otherwise ignite the materials inside the container. It won’t last forever, but it’s one way to make sure your favorite bombs don’t all go away in a show of fireworks… On your own Walker.
-Mechanic rebalance: Gas has been reworked so that it now works as a status effect applied to the Player. This means gas damage can no longer stack with more bombs fired on one location. This allows us to both work out better performance for gas bombs in general, but also be able to better balance this mechanic.
-Grappling hook: When hit by a melee attack, your grappling hook will now detach.
-New mechanic addition: Added Player combat cooldown. When a Player is attacked by another hostile Player, they will no longer be able to leave the Oasis. Player combat cooldown does not affect Walkers attempting to leave an Oasis (this means a Player can be in cooldown, but if the Walker he is on isn’t, they can leave).
-Allow throwing weapons to be equipped in both weapon slots.
[h2]
TRADING STATION & QUESTS[/h2]
-Fixed an issue which would cause the same quest to be generated many times in the same Trading Station.
-Fixed an issue which would cause the Trading Station to generate quests for an Oasis which was not yet available for travel.
-Fixed anonymous tiles streamer function not working for Scout quests.
-Fixed price display for sell orders - Should no longer display “you will receive” when spending Flots.
-Trading Station protection timer should properly reset for both duelists now.
-Fixed Players being able to loot Players in specific situations, after duel ends in Duel Arena.
[h2]
BALANCE[/h2]
-Items inside Obsidian Canister and Obsidian Pot cannot be ignited in order to create an explosion.
-Fire Bolts, Hellfire Bolts, and Hardened Hellfire Bolts can now all be detonated.
-Slightly reduced Explosive Bolt and Fire Bomb explosive power.
-Heavily reduced Floating Bombs explosive power. They were truly broken for their recipe cost.
-Added Hull Hardening Module - This new Walker module will protect against all kinds of damage, with the exception of ammo which deals vs.Reinforced type damage (that being Hullbreaker type of ammo, such as Fire Bolt, Hellfire, and other Hullbreaker ammo types). This new module will only be available in the Ancient City event oases.
-Firestone Kopesh has been rebalanced to better fit it’s tier. This one was a bit OP.
-Baskwood Armor has also been rebalanced to better fit it’s tier. It was also quite OP.
[h2]
STRUCTURES & BASES[/h2]
-If a mannable weapon or interactable structure is not facing the proper way toward the Player attempting to man it, it will now turn in place automatically when the Player interacts with it. It will not be possible to enter the mannable structure or interactable, until the turning operation is completed.
-Made mannable support for Scattershot Gun a bit more restrictive, so that Players are no longer floating alongside Walkers when manning Scattershot Guns.
-Remote Ballista and Exosuit aiming reticles should now work as intended. *happy sniper noises*
-It’s no longer possible to build Giant Wall Packers on Walkers.
-It’s no longer possible to build on Giant Wall Packers.
-Battle Fan “flamethrower” mode can no longer damage Players and mobs through any objects, including but not limited to Walkers, structures, terrain assets, etc.
-When a container has been ignited and is going to detonate, it will have a combat timer. This is to prevent the owners from disassembling it and preventing an explosion.
-Fixed not being able to place Iron Ingots in Lumbermill input, which would disallow the crafting of Reinforced Planks.
-Fixed not being able to store Reinforced Hellfire Bolt in some containers.
-Increased building distance for Giant Walls to fix some placement issues where Players could not reach it.
-The Defensive Tower has been moved to the Defenses category in the Building menu. It has not yet been fixed, so for now it remains unavailable to be built.
-Fixed incorrect rotation of Exoskeleton repeater gun.
-Crane and Kite now have proper building checks.
-Structures and Walkers which are being unpacked now behave as regular structures, disallowing unpacking/building nearby.
-Fixed Furnaces not being locked by default, as other crafting stations and containers are.
-Improved snapping for Barrier Base and Barrier Plank.
-Added more spawn positions on Beds.
-Fixed an issue which would cause Player movement to be tied with Kite when grappling to it, and then using a Wingsuit.
-Walker Climbers should now have proper building checks.
-Rebalanced recipe cost of Barrier Base, Barrier Gate, and Barrier Plank.
-Lowered Toolpod interaction distance.
-Fixed transferring items through walls. This should also fix the issue where player loot would appear on the roof of a base, instead of where they died.
[h2]
WALKERS & TRAVEL[/h2]
-Added a new Equipment Selection interface when respawning on a Walker. This will allow you to select the equipment you will spawn with, from your Walker’s Gear storage.
-When traveling to an oasis, if the protection bubble disappears automatically (by timeout), the entire travel party will be transferred off-map. This change is done in order to prevent situations where Walkers will in fact enter the map, but all Players are unable to reconnect, or a part of the crew is unable to reconnect. If the protection bubble disappears because the Walker inside has moved outside of it, nothing will happen.
-Fixed Weightless Module effect not being calculated when travelling with a Walker. Should now work at all times, without needing to unpack and repack the base.
-Fixed some structures pushing Walkers as if they were weightless.
-It’s no longer possible for enemy Players to build too close to a deployed Proxy Walker.
Cobra Walkers should now properly target nearby enemy weaponry, both on Walkers and on the ground.
-It is no longer possible to hide under Falco Walker wings in order to sneakily destroy them, without being able to take damage.
-Walker Part (Wings, Legs) lifetime has been reduced from 30 minutes to 3 minutes. This is done in order to avoid issues where Walkers and Players could sometimes get stuck under/in them.
-Stiletto LODs are now a little bit less aggressive at shorter distances.
-Construction supports for Walkers should now disappear after an hour.
-Fixed Hornet Walker Heavy Wings not showing wing power in the tech tree.
-Hercule Walker now has proper type for Walker levels.
-Proxy Walker water container now unlocks when below 50% HP.
-Buffed Titan Walker’s water storage. Previous values were 180 water Wood, 360 Bone, 750 Ceramic, and 1800 Iron. Updated values are 210 Wood, 450 Bone, 1050 Ceramic, and 2100 Iron.
-Improved Titan Walker’s movement. Player feedback on this would be greatly appreciated in case more changes need to be made.
-Fixed incorrect Wing Power comparison on Balang Walker.
-Fixed an issue which would cause Player movement to be tied to Walker movement when grappling from a Walker and using a Wingsuit (also without Wingsuit).
-Fixed Walker Leg animations not playing when large Legs moved at low speed (such as Panda Walker’s).
[h2]
OASES & POINTS OF INTEREST[/h2]
-Reduced eclipse duration to 3 minutes (down from 10). We noticed there is very interesting gameplay to be had during the eclipse, especially during the start of it. There are many tactical decisions to make during large clan fights which at some point or another will involve an eclipse. But, Players have given us feedback that it quite simply lasts too long. During the start of the eclipse, especially in the middle of a large battle, it’s something exciting that can sometimes change the tide for one side or another. Until it simply overstays its welcome.
-Updated old lootsites in starting Cradle oases.
-Updated visuals and LODs for crates on lootsites, for improved visibility and lowered performance impact.
-Fixed some geometry issues in oases, such as random spikes coming out of the ground, and deep holes through roads.
-Improved landscape on volcanic biome oases to better blend with the lava lakes.
-Rupu Camps now have their very own submerging functionality, instead of a really crazy physical destruction.
[h2]
MOBS[/h2]
-Fixed several issues with Killins being unable to land on their nests..
-Improved Killin landing behavior on nests.
-Improved Killin targeting behavior when around their nests.
-Attacking a rupu should now properly interrupt their taunt behavior, and trigger an offensive response.
[h2]
VISUALS[/h2]
-Updated explosion visual effects: LoDs, radius scaling, and different trail materials and fading have all been improved. Explosions should have higher resolution, and now be much less noisy.
-Various improvements to fire related visual effects (burning, objects on fire, etc).
-Updated camera shakes from explosions.
-Improved decals alignment on explosions, when hitting against angled surfaces.
-Improved lights and shadows for torches, campfires, and other light sources.
-Updated Advanced Hatchet asset.
-Fixed Mollusk Medium Wings visuals when retracted.
[h2]
SOUNDS[/h2]
-Fixed Heavy Walker Legs having no walking sound.
-Added new explosion sounds, for the improved explosion effects.
[h2]
INTERFACE & TEXT[/h2]
-Made gathering pouches have priority over normal Player inventory, when moving items between inventories, and harvesting resources. A similar behavior should also occur with other backpacks, etc.
-A confirmation message will now appear when kicking clan members, or choosing to leave the clan.
-Torque color on Walker Hud should now be readable.
-Fixed Discord Logs Integration and Clan Bank widgets showing up when in Ownership Editing mode.
-Improved clan color display on World Map, in particular when the clan color has dark tones.
-Improved clan color display on Player name widget. All clan names and colors should now be perfectly readable.
-Fixed some missing backgrounds in module icons.
-When spawning with no water in the Walker, there will be a warning message letting you know no gear will be equipped.
-Fixed typos in Giant Walls description.
-Slots bidding input display has been tweaked to allow for a larger amount of characters.
-Removed an old “Take all” invisible button. Someone actually found it.
-Improved icons on Respawn Menu.
-Tweaked descriptions of Concrete Structure parts. Fixed some naming issues.
-Removed contextual opening of world map instead of local map when at the travel zone.
-It’s now possible to rebind the Wingsuit open key.
-Mouse smoothing setting changes now persist.
-Fixed incorrect icons of vitamins.
-Fixed very large interactable distance on downed Players.
-Fixed incorrect interactable text on torque windmill.
-Fixed several localization issues.
-Fixed clan emblem showing up in different color at creation of clan.
-Improved readability of spawn options in Respawn Menu.
[h2]
FIXES & IMPROVEMENTS[/h2]
-Fixed players becoming invisible in manned weapons in some specific situations.
-Fixed several explosion related crashes.
-Improved backend handling when an oasis is full, to avoid kicking if Players time out or take too long to connect.
-Fixed Players sometimes getting stuck in block action when throwing Fire Bombs.
-Fixed a projectile related crash.
-Fix an issue which caused low level Players (protected) to lose gear when respawning with random equipment from Walker gear slots. Should no longer occur.
-Possibly fixed the bug where Players would be stuck in up attack/block stance. We’ll keep monitoring this one in case it’s still a thing.
-It’s no longer possible to climb while there is an active combat action, such as blocking.
-Kicking while grappling should no longer get Players stuck.
-Fixed several miscellaneous client crashes.
-Fixed carry type of Short Ceramic Hoofmace.
-Fixed a claiming related crash.
-Fixed some issues with first Player login request failing.
-Fixed Walker migration related crashes.
-Continued optimization of structural building parts, in order to lower their performance hit.
-Optimized several Walker parts to lower their performance hit.
-Improved Walker LODs, optimized for performance.
-Corrected and fixed collision issues on several rupu camp variations. This should also fix the issue where some specific parts of the rupu camp could kill players due to undermesh damage.
-Cull distance adjusted for most things in the game, such as Walkers, Structures, and assets in general.
-More performance improvements toward bomb effects, lowered number of areas of effect spawned by bombs, increased area of effect size.
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How about a ✨teaser✨ from the new map that will be released with Xbox?
We'll share a date for that soon!
Thanks for reading :)