Hey all, just a small balance patch today. In a few weeks I'll release a larger update that gives every skill in the game a brand new special mutation that changes how it plays. Stay tuned for that! The main focus of this patch however is to simplify the gameplay. The feature above will add a bit more complexity, and GSA is already a fast and complex game! So this version is "making space" for this upcoming feature by removing some complex mechanics that are mildly fun, but not enough to justify their extra complexity, and ultimately just become a bit of a mental tax that you need to think about if you want to play well. I'll give some examples, but it's a bit wordy and you can just skip to the changelog for a quick list of changes. A good example is the penalty for death. This is now changed to give a flat 100xp penalty. If you die 6 times in a match, you'll have -600xp. Very simple. Just try to avoid dying. That's all you need to know and you can now go back to getting kills. The previous system however was more complicated. You lost 50% of your current XP towards the next level. This meant that if you just leveled up you'd lose a small amount, but if you were almost at the end you'd lose a lot! Now.. that is quite interesting. But it added a whole new level of complexity to the game. Good players needed to constantly check their XP bar to see where they were at, and know when they should take risks or not. Often though you'd forget this and then see a huge amount of XP drain away which felt bad. Ultimately, GSA is so fast-paced that it's more fun to just focus on getting clean kills, instead of having to constantly manage your XP bar. In a simpler or slower game this could be cool, but GSA is so fast it's just too much to focus on, and takes focus away from quality combat. Another example is that this version removes the rare loot icons in the minimap. It's another thing to keep track of, that gets your mind into the UI and out of the game itself. Now you can just focus on exploring the city itself, instead of heading to checkpoints in a map. Another mechanic that got cut was the "first 3 kills of each round give bonus XP" rule. This cluttered up the HUD and it's just simpler to give a flat +100xp per kill. Finally, rounds are 1 minute longer to give sufficient time to explore and shop before the circle pushes you into overtime. In general, this version should let you just exist in the city itself, and focus on quality combat without having to constantly check various parts of the HUD. Feedback is welcome of course! Enjoy! bencelot ---- [GENERAL CHANGES] - Wanted stars now appear in the middle of the screen when the "WANTED LEVEL X/5" message shows. - Holding ALT will now show the names of guns in the bottom right. - The "PLAY VS BOTS" button is renamed to "PRACTICE MODE" and it works slightly differently: - In Practice mode, you will become invulnerable if you stand still and avoid shooting for 1s. There are only 12 bots in the lobby, and they are easier. You can't earn trophies in this mode. This is a good mode for players to explore the mechanics, read UI elements and skill descriptions, without fear of being shot at. - Daily challenges give 250 acid and 2500 XP instead of 200 and 2000. - The Deluxe DLC will now give 3x instead of 2x to these daily challenges. And it gives 3x instead of 4x to the ACID level ups (150 instead of 200). This is overall a buff, and should give DLC players DLC roughly +1000 more ACID per day (aka 1 flask). - Legendary packs are only available to players who have bought the DLC or starter pack first. - Added a new "CLAIM ALL" button when leveling up. [GAMEPLAY CHANGES] - There are now 4 minutes before overtime instead of 3. - The first 3 kills of the round rule has been removed. Too complex. Instead, all player kills give +100xp more than before. - When you die, you now lose a fixed 100xp, instead of 50% of your current XP progress. This removes the mental need to keep track of your current XP progress. - Rare loot crates no longer show in the minimap, nor do heart crates show for survivors. - It once again takes 3 kills instead of 2 kills to get the skill in the 3rd build slot at levels 4 and 6. - No new skill appears at level 12 anymore. This is moved back to level 15 (but almost no one ever reaches this). 5 skills is enough. - Hearts now give $100 instead of 10xp for survivors. - The civilian gangster mission and place chemicals mission no longer appear in round 1. - The kill zombies civ mission only requires 1 kill instead of 2. - Vendor upgrades do prices differently. Instead of the price going up per purchase across all upgrades. It goes up on a per upgrade basis. The first purchase costs $9000, then the next $12000, then the final one is $15000. - Vendor upgrades for skills won't appear if you don't have any skill that works with it. [CLASS CHANGES] - Assassin only gains +15% instead of +20% upgrade power per kill. - Caster now get a -33% discount on skill upgrades instead of a -50% discount. - Scavenger's second perk has been removed and replaced with a new one called: "Swift Shifts" - Swift Shifts: Restore shift charges +33% faster when moving, or +100% faster when stationary [SKILL CHANGES] - Soul Drop no longer steals health from enemies. It still does the damage, but you no longer get that amount of health back as well (way too OP). - Clusterbomb has a smaller range to toss at nearby players, only 35m instead of 45m - Self Repair cooldown now ranges from 18s to 12s, instead of staying fixed at 15s - Self Repair healing now ranges from 20 to 80hp instead of 20 to 110hp - Frenzy duration now ranges from 20s to 14s, instead of being fixed at 20s - Revenge Rockets bazooka damage now ranges from 50% to 110% instead of 30% to 90% - Regeneration healing rate now ranges from 6 to 24hp/s instead of 5 to 20hp/s - Shrapnel damage now ranges from +20% to +80%, instead of +20% to +110% - Smoke Bomb healing now ranges from 8 to 32hp/s instead of 6 to 24 hp/s - Flying Dagger damage now ranges from 100% to 130% instead of 85% to 115% - Invis move speed is now +10 to +40% instead of +16 to + 64%. Gun penalty duration is now 0.5 instead of 1.0s. - Boots of travel move speed is now +12 to + 48% instead of +16 to +64%. It kicks in after 0.5 instead of 0.7s. - Phase Drifting speed now ranges from +40% to +100% instead of +60% to +120%