CRITICAL RAGE

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.

LEVEL SIX BOOSTED SKILLS

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!

13 BRAND NEW SKILLS

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.

TROPHY CHALLENGE

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.

TRIOS MODE

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.

OTHER HIGHLIGHTS

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!

FULL CHANGELOG

--- 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.

[ 2023-10-29 19:51:00 CET ] [ Original post ]